Knight Ridder: Foreigners Seeking Transplants Come to China for Organs of Executed Prisoners (Excerpt)
April 11, 2006 TIANJIN, China - A few weeks after receiving a lifesaving liver transplant,
Pakistani businessman Shaukat Javed shuffled slowly around a specialty hospital
ward chatting up fellow organ recipients. Patients from around the globe mingled in the fourth-floor ward of the First
Tianjin Central Hospital, some of them with nurses bracing their steps. In the last few years, several Chinese hospitals have done a soaring business
in liver, heart and kidney transplants. They charge barely half as much as in
the West, advertise through intermediaries abroad and pull in a steady stream of
patients who are unable to find donors in their home countries. "About every nation is here," said Javed, who owns a soap factory
not far from Lahore. "There are Korean, Japanese, Arabs, the whole
(Persian) Gulf region. . . . There are a few guys from Israel as well." Javed's mood turned sour only when he was asked about the donor of the liver
that now was sewn firmly into his own abdomen. Did he know anything about the
person? "It isn't nice to look into these matters," he said tersely. A variety of human rights groups - such as Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch and the Laogai Research Foundation - say donated organs in China
often come from executed prisoners, and there are concerns that prisoners'
wishes aren't always respected. China's hospitals have a seemingly endless supply of organs because the
country applies the death penalty more freely than any other nation. By
harvesting from executed prisoners, hospitals receive a steady stream of organs
and can match donors' compatibility with recipients ahead of time. Authorities don't hide the fact that executed prisoners are a source for some
organs, but they say it isn't a rampant practice. Organs come from executed prisoners [...] But the rule of law is weak in China, courts aren't independent and many gray
areas exist around informed consent for organ donation. A number of social and political issues intersect in the matter of China's
organ transplants. First, there's a rising level of medical sophistication. The country is among the world leaders in the number of organ transplants
each year. Secondly, as China veers toward a free-market economy, institutions
such as hospitals are grasping at income-generating opportunities, such as
treating affluent foreigners. Moreover, as in many aspects of the Chinese state, secrecy shrouds the
execution of prisoners. China doesn't say how many prisoners it kills each year,
but legal scholars say it's probably between 3,000 and 8,000. Accusations about harvesting organs from prisoners in China have existed for
several decades. But they revived in recent weeks with reports in The Epoch
Times, an overseas newspaper linked to Falun Gong, a banned spiritual
movement. The newspaper charged that a secret labor camp near Shenyang, in
China's northeastern region, contained Falun Gong detainees who were to be
executed for the express purpose of providing organs that the state would sell
for a profit. Falun Gong advocates said the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital in
Shenyang transplanted organs that were taken at the Sujiatun camp. Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said March 31 that the Bush
administration took the charges "very seriously" and he urged China to
investigate. [...] Permanent regulations are in the works, prompted by reports of botched
transplants in Japanese patients that led to as many as eight deaths. Web sites in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan advertise the availability of
liver and kidney transplants in China, and offer prices for the procedures. [...] A British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, reported in December that its
reporter posed as someone interested in getting involved in organ transplants as
a business venture at a hospital in Guangzhou, a southern metropolis. "We should be cautious - this is sensitive," the newspaper quoted a
hospital physician, Na Ning, as telling the reporter. The paper said Na offered
a contract that provided commissions to brokers and middlemen for bringing in
patients, and cut rates for more than 10 transplants. Authorities don't reveal how many foreigners come to China for transplants
each year, but if the bustling Tianjin transplant wards are any indication, the
number is quite high. The hospital claims to have done about 1,000 liver
transplants and 2,000 kidney transplants, making it the largest center for liver
transplants in China. South Korea's largest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, said last year that about 1,000
Koreans a year were undergoing organ transplants in Chinese hospitals. Patients and family members at the Tianjin hospital said that once they'd
heard of the availability of organs here, they rushed to arrange operations. Nadeem Manjj came with his uncle, Mumdaz Ali Cheema, from Pakistan last June
for a third liver transplant. The first two failed because Cheema has hepatitis
C, complicating the procedure. "They say this is the last chance," Manjj said. "It's very
risky to do it a third time. There's nowhere else like this. Here, the organs
are available. In England or the U.S., you have to bring a donor with you." Manjj said the fees in China were half what they'd be in Britain or the
United States, "and the post-transplant care is the same." Looking weak, Cheema joined in the conversation. "In China, the donors are available all the time," he said.
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