As China announces a national organ donation system, official media admit the system will replace transplant organs from executed prisoners, which "experts estimate account for more than 65 percent of total donors".
From China Daily, 26 August 2009
Public call for organ donations
By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-26 07:38
China launched a national organ donation system yesterday in a bid to gradually shake off its long-time dependence on executed prisoners as a major source of organs for transplants and as part of efforts to crack down on organ trafficking.
The system, operated mainly by the Red Cross Society of China with assistance from the Ministry of Health, will begin as pilot projects in 10 provinces and cities.
"The system is in the public interest and will benefit patients regardless of social status and wealth in terms of fairness in organ allocation and better procurement," said Vice-Minister of Health Huang Jiefu.
Under the system, the Red Cross is responsible for encouraging post-death organ donations among the public, receiving donor registrations, keeping a database, starting a fund to provide financial assistance for needy, surviving families of donors and overseeing the allocation of donated organs according to set principles.
"Transplants should not be a privilege for the rich," Huang said.
The late, famous Chinese actor Fu Biao received two liver transplants within several months in 2005, raising doubts about the fairness of organ allocation, given that the waiting time for the general public can be years - even if one is lucky enough to get a match, let alone have a second surgery.
Currently about one million people in China need organ transplants each year while only 1 percent receive one, official statistics show.
Only about 130 people on the mainland have signed up to donate their organs since 2003, according to research on the promotion of organ donation after death by professor Chen Zhonghua with the Institute of Organ Transplantation of Tongji Hospital.
The system will help find more willing donors who didn't know how to donate, said Jiang Yiman, the society's deputy director at the launch yesterday in Shanghai. "The Chinese have a tradition of helping others in need and the potential of organ donations from the public is yet to be tapped," she said.
Organ donors
Executed prisoners, who experts estimate account for more than 65 percent of total donors, "are definitely not a proper source for organ transplants," said Vice-Minister Huang.
That the rights of death-row prisoners to donate is fully respected and written consent from them is required, he told China Daily.
Qian Jianmin, chief transplant surgeon with the Shanghai Huashan Hospital, said hospitals performing transplants not only treat patients getting organs from executed prisoners, but have to deal with other levels of government, including the justice department.
"Corruption can arise during the process," he said.
Some just ignore legal procedures regarding organ donations from executed prisoners and make a fat profit, Huang said.
All costs are passed on to patients. Sometimes the recipient pays up to 200,000 yuan ($29,000) for a kidney, not including other medical services.
China issued an organ transplant law in 2007 that bans organ trafficking and only allows donations from living people to blood relatives and spouses, plus someone considered "emotionally connected."
However, organ middlemen have been faking documents in order to make a person who is desperately in need of money be considered "emotionally connected" to the recipients, reports said.
Living transplants increased to 40 percent of total transplants from 15 percent in 2006, Chen Zhonghua said.
"That's one of the daunting tasks facing us as we try to end the organ trade by establishing this system," Huang noted.
Other goals include preventing organ tourism, improving transplant quality, better defining donors' rights and satisfying patients' needs for transplants in an ethical manner.
"With more organ donations from the public, the total cost for transplants will decrease," he said.
The exact cost for transplants varies from place to place and largely remains an industry secret. But experts said it's at least 100,000 yuan.
Praise for initiative
"We welcome the emphasis put on fair practice in organ procurement, allocation and transplant, echoing the WHO guiding principles on transplantation," said Luc Noel, coordinator of clinical procedures in the essential health technologies department at World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva.
"China is establishing the national network and authority necessary to initiate and maximize organ donations from deceased donors and thus progress towards the global mainstream in organ donation and transplantation," he said.
The system will be operated at both State and provincial levels. Donated organs would be allocated locally first and then nationally.
"My colleagues and I welcome the system, which will facilitate our efforts to save more patients and help medical workers concentrate more on practicing medicine," said transplant surgeon Qian, whose hospital performs about 150 transplants each year.
Wang Yuling, a young white-collar worker in Beijing, said she'd donate if it really helps someone in need instead of making someone rich.
The pilot projects will take place across the country, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Fujian (Xiamen), Jiangsu (Nanjing), Hubei (Wuhan), Liaoning, Shandong and Jiangxi. The system will then be introduced nationwide, Jiang said.
When asked for a specific timetable when the system will cover the whole country, Huang said the process took 20 years in United States.
"I hope it'll be faster in China. We are still searching for the best way," he said.
"Details about the system, like how to clearly define responsibilities for all stakeholders under the system, including the Red Cross and health administrations, are still under discussion," Jiang said.
(China Daily 08/26/2009 page3)
[Emphasis added]
Related stories:
China admits organs from prisoners -- 6 December 2006
Stop transplant tourism: surgeon -- 28 November 2006
China restricts organs from executions -- 29 March 2006
Showing posts with label organ transplants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organ transplants. Show all posts
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Organ transplant after execution: Singapore
A prominent Singapore businessman reportedly received a kidney transplant last Friday using an organ donated by an executed gangster.
According to The Straits Times, police confirmed former gang leader Tan Chor Jin was hanged in Changi prison on the morning of 9 January, for the 2006 shooting of a nightclub owner.
The paper reported that retail magnate Tang Wee Sung received the kidney transplant later in the day in the National University Hospital.
Tan, 42, was executed about two weeks after his appeal for presidential clemency was rejected in the last week of December.
Singapore's president has granted clemency only six times since the country since independence in 1965.
Singapore newspapers reported in the days before Tan's execution that he had told his wife and mistress he wanted to donate his organs after his death.
Tan, 42, was convicted in May 2007 of discharging a firearm, which carries a mandatory death penalty.
The High Court was told he entered nightclub operator Lim Hock Soon's flat on the morning of 15 February, 2006, ordering him to tie up his wife, daughter and their maid. Tan fired six rounds from a pistol, hitting Lim five times and killing him instantly.
He was arrested in a hotel raid by Malaysian police after he fled to Kuala Lumpur.
The High Court rejected his defence arguments that he had been drunk, the shots were fired accidentally and he had acted in self-defence after Mr Lim threw a chair at him.
Tan discharged his lawyer and represented himself during his trial, but he was represented in his appeal by criminal lawyers Subhas Anandan and Sunil Sudheesan.
He was referred to by the media as a triad gang leader and the 'One-eyed Dragon' because he was blind in his right eye.
The New Paper claimed in 2006 that Tan was hired by a Malaysian crime syndicate to kill Lim in a dispute over gambling winnings.
Tang was jailed for a day and fined $17,000 in 2008 in the country's first organ trading case, after he was convicted of trying to buy a kidney from an Indonesian.
In the previous reported execution, Singapore hanged Mohammed Ali Johari on 19 December 2008 for the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter.
According to The Straits Times, police confirmed former gang leader Tan Chor Jin was hanged in Changi prison on the morning of 9 January, for the 2006 shooting of a nightclub owner.
The paper reported that retail magnate Tang Wee Sung received the kidney transplant later in the day in the National University Hospital.
Tan, 42, was executed about two weeks after his appeal for presidential clemency was rejected in the last week of December.
Singapore's president has granted clemency only six times since the country since independence in 1965.
Singapore newspapers reported in the days before Tan's execution that he had told his wife and mistress he wanted to donate his organs after his death.
Tan, 42, was convicted in May 2007 of discharging a firearm, which carries a mandatory death penalty.
The High Court was told he entered nightclub operator Lim Hock Soon's flat on the morning of 15 February, 2006, ordering him to tie up his wife, daughter and their maid. Tan fired six rounds from a pistol, hitting Lim five times and killing him instantly.
He was arrested in a hotel raid by Malaysian police after he fled to Kuala Lumpur.
The High Court rejected his defence arguments that he had been drunk, the shots were fired accidentally and he had acted in self-defence after Mr Lim threw a chair at him.
Tan discharged his lawyer and represented himself during his trial, but he was represented in his appeal by criminal lawyers Subhas Anandan and Sunil Sudheesan.
He was referred to by the media as a triad gang leader and the 'One-eyed Dragon' because he was blind in his right eye.
The New Paper claimed in 2006 that Tan was hired by a Malaysian crime syndicate to kill Lim in a dispute over gambling winnings.
Tang was jailed for a day and fined $17,000 in 2008 in the country's first organ trading case, after he was convicted of trying to buy a kidney from an Indonesian.
In the previous reported execution, Singapore hanged Mohammed Ali Johari on 19 December 2008 for the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter.
Wednesday, 6 December 2006
China admits organs from prisoners
A senior Chinese health official has admitted that most transplant organs in China - the world's second-largest transplant system, are taken from executed prisoners.
Vice-Minister of Health Huang Jiefu told a conference on organ transplantation in Guangzhou on 14 November: "There are about 1.5 million people in China who need transplants each year, but only around 10,000 operations can be carried out."
"Almost all organ transplants can be performed in China. However, the current big shortfall of organ donations can't meet the demand," he said.
"Apart from a small portion of traffic victims, most of the organs from cadavers are from executed prisoners," Huang said.
But Vice-Minister Huang denied the organs were taken without the consent of the prisoner or their family.
"The relevant government authorities strongly require the informed consent from the prisoners or their families for the donation of organs," he said.
Ministry of Health spokesman Mao Qun'an said the regulations required the written consent of a prisoner or their relatives in order to donate their organs.
However he admitted that the regulations had not been properly enforced because of poor government supervision.
Rich people, including foreign patients, could jump waiting lists by buying transplant organs.
Official turnaround
The latest admission is a sharp reversal of the Chinese Government's policy of denying that many organs came from executed prisoners.
As recently as 13 September, The Shanghai Daily reported that the "Ministry of Health said most organs in China had been voluntarily donated by citizens. A small number came from death-row inmates who had volunteered."
Large transplant system
Xinhua's report on the conference said according to the Ministry of Health, 2,500 cornea transplants are carried out every year in China, with a further 2 million patients awaiting corneas for transplant.
It said Ministry of Health statistics recorded 34,726 organ transplants in China between 2000 and 2004.
With 10,000 transplants every year, China ranks second in the world for transplants after the United States.
Lucrative trade in death
Amnesty International reported in May that "extracting organs from executed prisoners has been a widespread and highly profitable practice in China since the de facto privatization of health care several years ago".
The human rights organisation said it was estimated that around 99% of transplanted organs in China may come from executed prisoners.
Amnesty International's death penalty update said: "International medical standards state that transplants may only take place voluntarily and with the free and informed consent of the donor; it is unlikely that those faced with the trauma of imminent execution are in a position to provide such consent.
"The secrecy surrounding the application of the death penalty in China also makes it difficult to verify whether such consent was given."
Related stories:
Stop transplant tourism: surgeon -- 28 November, 2006
China restricts organs from executions -- 29 March, 2006
China, death penalty, executed prisoners, human rights, law reform, organ transplant
Vice-Minister of Health Huang Jiefu told a conference on organ transplantation in Guangzhou on 14 November: "There are about 1.5 million people in China who need transplants each year, but only around 10,000 operations can be carried out."
"Almost all organ transplants can be performed in China. However, the current big shortfall of organ donations can't meet the demand," he said.
"Apart from a small portion of traffic victims, most of the organs from cadavers are from executed prisoners," Huang said.
But Vice-Minister Huang denied the organs were taken without the consent of the prisoner or their family.
"The relevant government authorities strongly require the informed consent from the prisoners or their families for the donation of organs," he said.
Ministry of Health spokesman Mao Qun'an said the regulations required the written consent of a prisoner or their relatives in order to donate their organs.
However he admitted that the regulations had not been properly enforced because of poor government supervision.
Rich people, including foreign patients, could jump waiting lists by buying transplant organs.
Official turnaround
The latest admission is a sharp reversal of the Chinese Government's policy of denying that many organs came from executed prisoners.
As recently as 13 September, The Shanghai Daily reported that the "Ministry of Health said most organs in China had been voluntarily donated by citizens. A small number came from death-row inmates who had volunteered."
Large transplant system
Xinhua's report on the conference said according to the Ministry of Health, 2,500 cornea transplants are carried out every year in China, with a further 2 million patients awaiting corneas for transplant.
It said Ministry of Health statistics recorded 34,726 organ transplants in China between 2000 and 2004.
With 10,000 transplants every year, China ranks second in the world for transplants after the United States.
Lucrative trade in death
Amnesty International reported in May that "extracting organs from executed prisoners has been a widespread and highly profitable practice in China since the de facto privatization of health care several years ago".
The human rights organisation said it was estimated that around 99% of transplanted organs in China may come from executed prisoners.
Amnesty International's death penalty update said: "International medical standards state that transplants may only take place voluntarily and with the free and informed consent of the donor; it is unlikely that those faced with the trauma of imminent execution are in a position to provide such consent.
"The secrecy surrounding the application of the death penalty in China also makes it difficult to verify whether such consent was given."
Related stories:
Stop transplant tourism: surgeon -- 28 November, 2006
China restricts organs from executions -- 29 March, 2006
China, death penalty, executed prisoners, human rights, law reform, organ transplant
Tuesday, 28 November 2006
Stop transplant tourism: surgeon
A leading Israeli surgeon has called on patients in his country to stop travelling to China for transplant surgery.
Dr Jacob Lavee, director of the heart transplant unit at the Sheba Medical Center, said 90 percent of transplant organs in China had been taken from executed prisoners without consent.
According to a 29 October report on the Israeli news website Ynetnews, Dr Lavee described transplants performed in China as "crimes against humanity" in a special survey published in the medical journal Harefua.
The rate of organ donation is very low in Israel, up to half the rate in Europe and the United States.
About half of Israeli patients on waiting lists travel overseas for surgery as a result of the shortage of available organs. Most travel to China.
Dr Lavee said: "It goes without saying that the distress of patients in Israel waiting for transplants is great, but one's distress doesn't justify committing a crime on another."
The Harefua article quoted a Chinese doctor who sought political refuge in the United States.
Dr Wang Guayoki testified before a House of Representatives committee that he had removed skin and corneas from more than 100 executed prisoners in China.
He said the prisoners were given an injection to prevent their blood from clotting and perserve their organs. They were then shot in the head, with medical staff waiting to remove the organs for transplant.
'Thriving trade'
In September, an undercover BBC investigation found a "thriving trade" in organs from executed prisoners.
One hospital in Tianjin told a BBC correspondent it could supply a transplant liver at a cost of £50,000 (US$94,400). The chief surgeon confirmed that the organ could come from an executed prisoner.
The BBC said China's foreign ministry admitted in March that organs from prisoners were used in transplants, but claimed this occurred only in "very few cases".
One official told the BBC that prisoners donated their organs as a "present to society".
Related stories:
China restricts organs from executions -- 29 March, 2006
China, death penalty, executed prisoners, human rights, law reform, organ transplant
Dr Jacob Lavee, director of the heart transplant unit at the Sheba Medical Center, said 90 percent of transplant organs in China had been taken from executed prisoners without consent.
According to a 29 October report on the Israeli news website Ynetnews, Dr Lavee described transplants performed in China as "crimes against humanity" in a special survey published in the medical journal Harefua.
The rate of organ donation is very low in Israel, up to half the rate in Europe and the United States.
About half of Israeli patients on waiting lists travel overseas for surgery as a result of the shortage of available organs. Most travel to China.
Dr Lavee said: "It goes without saying that the distress of patients in Israel waiting for transplants is great, but one's distress doesn't justify committing a crime on another."
The Harefua article quoted a Chinese doctor who sought political refuge in the United States.
Dr Wang Guayoki testified before a House of Representatives committee that he had removed skin and corneas from more than 100 executed prisoners in China.
He said the prisoners were given an injection to prevent their blood from clotting and perserve their organs. They were then shot in the head, with medical staff waiting to remove the organs for transplant.
'Thriving trade'
In September, an undercover BBC investigation found a "thriving trade" in organs from executed prisoners.
One hospital in Tianjin told a BBC correspondent it could supply a transplant liver at a cost of £50,000 (US$94,400). The chief surgeon confirmed that the organ could come from an executed prisoner.
The BBC said China's foreign ministry admitted in March that organs from prisoners were used in transplants, but claimed this occurred only in "very few cases".
One official told the BBC that prisoners donated their organs as a "present to society".
Related stories:
China restricts organs from executions -- 29 March, 2006
China, death penalty, executed prisoners, human rights, law reform, organ transplant
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