China limits organ transplants for foreigners

[Guest guest]

China limits organ transplants for foreigners

New guidelines will regulate procedure, give priority to Chinese

patients

The Associated Press

Updated: 11:12 a.m. PT July 3, 2007

BEIJING - China issued guidelines Tuesday restricting organ

transplants for foreigners, giving priority to Chinese patients in

the government's latest effort to regulate procedures that have been

criticized as profit-driven and unethical.

Little information about China's lucrative transplant business is

publicly available. One human rights activist said there is fierce

competition among hospitals to attract the foreigners, who make up an

estimated 30 to 40 percent of transplant patients in China.

" This was a substantial source of financial revenue, " said

Bequelin, a Hong-Kong based China researcher with Human Rights Watch.

He said most of those seeking transplants come from South Korea,

Japan and Hong Kong.

Guidelines posted on the Ministry of Health Web site give priority to

Chinese patients. Health providers that want to perform transplants

on foreigners must apply to the provincial health department, which

in turn must seek approval from the national health ministry,

according to the rules dated June 26 but posted online Tuesday.

Doctors or hospitals caught performing illegal transplants face

punishment, including loss of licenses permitting them to perform the

procedures.

Facing a shortage

Health officials say China faces a severe shortage of human organs,

estimating that out of 1.5 million people who need transplants in

China each year, only about 10,000 operations are carried out.

Voluntary donations remain far below demand in China, partly due to

cultural biases against organ removal before burial.

Human rights groups have said many organs — including those

transplanted into foreigners — come from executed prisoners who may

not have given permission.

Earlier this year, regulations issued by China's State Council, or

Cabinet, made it illegal to harvest human organs without permission.

The rules also included a ban on the sale of human organs for profit

and on donations by people under 18.

Bequelin welcomed the regulations, which he said were enacted to

counter criticism of China's human rights record before next summer's

Beijing Olympics. But they still do not address the lack of

transparency in the organ transplant system, which has no centralized

regulation or oversight.

" We don't see there's any steps toward better transparency,

especially the source of organs, since many come from executed

prisoners, " he said.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the article. I've been wondering about organ transplants in

China. I had heard they used executed prisoners to obtain organs. I wasn't

sure if the people were executed for the sole purpose of obtaining the

organs. Actually, I'm still not sure.

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