China acknowledges transplant tourism, decides to act sternly

By Satish Gupta l eTN Asia

After a prolonged denial, China has acknowledged the practice of transplant tourism. Under the prevalent practice, the organs of executed prisoners are sold to foreigners, something, which has been repeatedly denied by the government over the years.

The acknowledgement is in response to suspicion that hospitals are conducting a lucrative and expanding trade in selling organs to foreigners who arrive in the country on tourist visas.

Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu called for a strict code of conduct and better record-keeping to stem China’s thriving illegal organ trade, state media reported.

“Apart from a small portion of traffic victims, most of the organs from cadavers are from executed prisoners,” said Huang, according to China Daily newspaper.

As per the information available, a ministry spokesman also said that “wealthier people, including foreign patients” have the luxury of getting preference over those in the waiting list due to their financial strength.

However, under new rules, foreigners would only be allowed to come to China for transplants under regulations yet to be announced but that would conform to international standards. Priority would be given to an estimated one million Chinese on waiting lists. All practitioners would have to sign up to the rules, which also include a ban on “organ trading” — buying organs from live donors — and transporting organs to sell outside China.

“There are about 1.5 million people in China who need transplants each year, but only around 10,000 operations can be carried out due to shortages,” said Jiefu.

The ministry banned the sale of human organs in July in an apparent attempt to clean up the lucrative but poorly regulated transplant business.

While this is very disturbing article, and with all due respect, but are Thais or Thailand involved?

While this is very disturbing article, and with all due respect, but are Thais or Thailand involved?

There has been some scandal regarding organs removed from patients in Thai hospitals lately, but nothing concerning executed convicts......