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.
What a lovely country China is.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
"What a lovely country China is."
I'm sure more than a few visitors to this site would like this thing to go on closer to home.
Regards, Ivan
And what makes you so sure.
All the posts made here are open, would you please site some.
Yeah, but they stock our shelves with cheap crap, so its a glass half full kind of thing.
"I don't mind executing criminals...I'm all for it. Harvesting their organs for sale is gruesome, however."
There have been stories of the Falung Gong being killed in prisons and their organs being sold:
http://www.laogai.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=2149
As much as I despise the Labour and Liberal Parties, I'm not uncivilised enough to demand we slaughter them and sell their vital organs.
Regards, Ivan
Is this true?? crikey...
Carolyn
Communist China has zero ethics. We can not let them dictate world affairs in the future.
To be honest I can't at this moment but whenever a post announcing an execution whether in the US or elsewhere appears, its rare indeed that any poster expresses any regret except for the length of time it took to execute them or the method was too quick/not painful enough.
"its rare indeed that any poster expresses any regret except for the length of time it took to execute them or the method was too quick/not painful enough."
That's because many people here support the death penalty. Why would anyone express regret for a convicted murderer's execution?
I'm a little torn.
On one hand we have a little bit of good coming out out of a bad situation. There are thousands of people waiting for transplants that don't get them and die as a result.
On the other hand I can envision the Chinese government taking orders for body parts and matching them to the prison population. Whoever is a match suddenly becomes the next in line to be a willing donor.
I've read articles where the prisoner was shot, hauled over to an ambulance, and harvested while still breathing and awake. In some cases it wasnt the gunshot that killed them it was the organ removal. Since many of China's production lines involve prisoners this may be a new twist on downsizing.
We should remember this the next time we choose to save a few bucks on christmas tree lights.
I haven't seen any on the use of adult organs - but if Freepers follow any thread that touches on the fate of frozen human embryos then they will find some posts from latter-day Mengeles
Is this a Wal-Mart thread?
So the Chinese are capitalists after all.
"That's because many people here support the death penalty. Why would anyone express regret for a convicted murderer's execution?"
That was my original point; madivan was criticising China and I just made the observation I think that a lot of posters to this site would like to do the same thing that China is being criticised for.
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