Organ trafficking stirs concern
- Source: Global Times
- [01:55 August 24 2009]
- Comments
Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, has seen the most trade of organs, Li said, adding that many donors are from there. He put the country's total number of organs traded at several hundred a year.
“I haven't dealt with any foreigner receivers. That must be very tricky. It would be extremely troublesome for us to fake identities for their stay and access to Chinese hospitals and the medical facilities,” Li said.
But that doesn't mean there's a lack of interest. Li noted that he would do business with foreigners as long as they pay more and have Asian faces, preferably South Koreans and Japanese, which he said would make business easier.
From a legal and safety standpoint, Chen noted that the illegal organ trade must be phased out. As a lucrative business, violent disputes often arise, and organ recipients often turn to loan sharks to pay for their operations.
According to a report by transplantation.org.cn, police found a corpse missing organs June 15 in Guizhou Province.
Preliminary investigations indicated that a local organ broker killed a healthy man and sold his organs to three doctors at the Guangdong-based Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.
The hospital is one of the 164 medical institutions officially qualified to carry out organ transplants.
The Ministry of Health didn't confirm the information, saying only that they have seen the report.
But the ministry has launched an overhaul of illegal organ transplantations at mainland hospitals. Under the leadership of the National Organ Transplantation Committee and the ministry, an expert team has begun final evaluation of the 164 practitioners.
“We'll let the people know and decide which hospital to go to for quality and ethical transplants,” the ministry said in an August 12 statement.
“A waiting list will be made public to secure transparent and fair practice in terms of organ-donation allocations and procurements,” Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu said.
The Red Cross Society of China, in collaboration with the ministry, plans to establish an independent organ-donation system that would include a waiting list of patients, as well as stipulations on the sources of donations, according to its executive vice president, Jiang Yiman.
As the initiator and director of the first organ-donation platform for the deceased, which is based in Shenzhen, Chen said he was worried about the low donation rate on the Chinese mainland of just 0.03 donors for every million people, far lower than that of Spain, which is 36 donors per 1 million people – the highest proportion in the world
“It will take China five to 10 years to raise the number to 0.3 in 1 million people,” Chen estimated.
Guo Qiang and Wei Qiu contributed to this story
