BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China issues new rules on organs
China issues new rules on organs
The Chinese government says it is cracking down on the organ trade
China has issued new regulations governing human organ transplants, state media has reported.
From 1 May, doctors and hospitals who violate a ban on commercial trade in organs will face fines and suspensions.
The number of hospitals allowed to perform transplants will be restricted and it will become a crime to harvest organs without the donor's consent.
Critics say China's transplant industry is beset by illegal practices with many organs coming from executed prisoners.
The BBC's Quentin Somerville in Shanghai says that organs have been a lucrative and thriving business for the military and China's under-funded health system.
Death row prisoners
Under the new rules, doctors and clinics involved in the illegal organ trade will have their licenses revoked and will be subject to high fines, Xinhua news agency reported.
The rules ban the use of organs from donors under 18 and state that every transplant must be approved by an ethics committee.
The rules also stipulate that organ transplants "should respect the principle of voluntary and free donation", Xinhua said.
Critics say death row inmates may not be free to withhold consent
Last year, China officials denied a BBC report that organs taken from executed prisoners - not necessarily with their consent - were being sold to health tourists from overseas.
A BBC reporter ostensibly seeking a liver for a sick relative was told by doctors at a hospital in Tianjin that one could be available in three weeks and the donor could be an executed prisoner.
Ni Shouming of the Supreme People's Court said that organs from prisoners were only used with their consent or that of their families. "The donation procedure for ordinary people and those who sit on death row is the same," he said.
China faces a huge gap between supply and demand of organs, Xinhua said.
According to Health Ministry statistics, 1.5 million patients need transplants each year, but only 10,000 organs are available.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
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China’s new regulation on organ harvesting -just another face saving hoax in the lead up to the 2008 Olympic games
On 1 May China’s State Council issued a new regulation banning the trade of human organs, making it a crime to harvest organs without the owner's permission or against their will.
Such regulation is the response of a communist regime under pressure with the Olympics approaching and the updated Matas-Kilgour report shining the spotlight on organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong practitioners have experienced China’s two tiered system. One is for “show”, a system of laws and regulations which is overruled by the brutal reality – directives issued by the Communist Party.
Commenting on the 1 July 2006 Chinese Health Ministry regulation to supposedly ban the sale of organs, Guo Guoting a Chinese human rights lawyer now living in Canada, reinforced that many laws in China are “only for show” and are never implemented.
They passed this so-called law, but actually it’s just to deceive the international community, not to protect the people’s rights,.
Should we believe this new regulation will protect Falun Gong practitioners? No. Why?
· The Chinese Communist Party has a history of ignoring its own Constitution (which guarantees both freedom of belief and freedom of speech), as well as UN conventions it has signed and ratified, such as the Convention Against Torture when it suits its purpose. Why would it be any different with this regulation?
· The People’s Liberation Army stands outside of State Council regulatory control. China’s hundreds of military hospitals are heavily implicated in the organ harvesting allegations.
· Last year’s 1 July regulation banned the sale of organs. Yet, as the updated Matas-Kilgour report notes, in November 2006 Belgian Senator Patrik Vankrunkelsven called two different hospitals in Beijing, pretending to be a customer for a kidney transplant – and both hospitals offered him a kidney on the spot for 50,000 euros!
“No amount of ‘regulation’ can help. The international community can only be convinced that illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners or executed prisoners is no longer occurring when the Chinese Communist Party opens the doors of its labor camps and hospitals, stops the senseless persecution – and allows urgent independent investigation.
Branches of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) have applied to the Chinese embassies and consulates around the worldto ask for access to Chinese hospitals and detention centres to investigate these crimes. To date not a single application has been approved.
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