Posted on 09/28/2006 4:21:50 AM PDT by MadIvan
Shocking new evidence of the trade in human body parts has revealed how British patients could be buying organs from executed prisoners for £50,000.
An undercover investigation has found doctors in China are willing to sell organs from death row prisoners to foreigners in need of a transplant. The grisly practice add to mounting evidence of how human organs are being traded around the globe.
Only last week it emerged at least 40 British patients may have been given transplants using body parts stolen by a corpse-snatching gang. More than 1,000 bodies including that of veteran broadcaster Alistair Cooke, were stolen from US funeral parlours by the Mafia and sold for use in bone grafts.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency revealed that 25 UK hospitals bought tissue that could have been taken from these potentially-contaminated corpses.
Now a BBC team have exposed how foreigners can travel to China to buy themselves a new organ from executed prisoners.
A reporter posing as a man looking for a liver for his sick father, was told a matching organ could be made available within less than three weeks for £50,000.
Officials at the hospital in Northern China openly admitted where the organs came from. 'It's true we use a lot of organs from executed prisoners,' one official admitted.
'The prisoners on death row have done many bad things and before they die they give their organs as a present to society.'
He even advised the reporter to try to get his sick father to the clinic in time for China's National Day on October 1 as there would be an increase of executions in the run up to the event, which would lead to an abundance of available organs.
It is not clear whether any Britons have visited the hospital to buy an organ, but according to the undercover team the cafeteria was buzzing with foreign visitors.
Some 95 per cent of organs transplanted in China come from executed prisoners and the authorities insist each freely gives their consent prior to death.
However campaigners have raised questions over whether they are truly free to make their own decisions.
Earlier this year it was claimed some of the organs were harvested from prisoners while they were still alive.
Human rights groups said execution dates are being made to fit in with the needs of wealthy foreigners who want the prisoner's organs.
The British Transplantation Society has condemned the practice of using organs from executed prisoners as 'unethical' and 'unacceptable.'
It has warned: 'An accumulating body of evidence suggests that the organs of executed prisoners are being removed for transplantation without the prior consent of either the prisoner or their family.'
In response to the latest investigation, the Chinese Ministry of Health said it does not deny that executed prisoner organs are used in donations but would review the system to see if it should consider tightening the regulations.
Jesus .... The red chinese are bascially organleggers.
You would love my risotto made with my fish stock and served with pan seared salmon and a butter dill sauce.
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
"It's not that so much that a lot of FReepers seem to enjoy the spilling of another human being's blood. Some of us correctly find that disturbing. Feeling joy over death is not normal, regardless of how you may feel about it."
I think you misinterpret the motivations. Its not joy at the spilling of blood. Its relief that in some cases there is justice in the world, and also that these scum won't be around to hurt other innocents.
Big story a few months ago. Upstate NY funeral homes also involved. Try this for starters; http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-02-22-body-part-snatcher_x.htm - 50k -
That's fascinating, thank you for the link. That detective that became suspicious and blew the whistle is one smart cookie.
crikey....!
"Whose living memory are you talking about?"
You would have to be in your 80s, but the last one in the US was in 1935 I believe. Was so well attended and photographed, there was a national outcry and everything after that was carried out within the prisons. Black bloke called Bettea.
Then there were the lynchings up until the 1960s, but those were outside the law so don't count.
Will have to figure out how to post links; never seems to work.
Don't wear a hat BTW.
"What a dreamer you are."
Would have thought this was the stuff of nightmares myself not dreams, but there you go.
OK,OK just a few posts I saw regarding Tookie Williams & Clarence Ray Allen amongst others.
(This could get me into trouble...the nature vs. nurture debate is killing me these days...but oh well.)
It's largely human nature to "enjoy" seeing people die (esp. gruesome deaths)because it's woven into our psychology to think "Hey, that guy is A) suffering something I'm not, so I have it easy, B) guilty of something and therefore deserving of punishment, and C)A part of society that needs to be eliminated.
Can people really help feeling a need for violence/catharsis/revenge? I'm not sure.
I suppose everybody's eyes are on the body snatchers, so I would like to call attention to the other side of this picture -- the 40 customers. The organ buyers. The Brits. This is socialized medicine at its most poignant -- reduced to buying body organs from a corpse-snatching gang. I trust Hillary Clinton is learning from this experience and will build a body-snatching price into the next round of HillaryHealth legislation.
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