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Headlines : Human RightsCanadians buy organs culled in executions
Transplant clinics in Canada say they are “seeing increasing numbers of patients who paid for kidney transplants in China.” It’s a safe bet that those organs come from one of the thousands of prisoners executed in China each year. It costs upwards of US$75,000 to obtain a kidney transplant in China, and it only takes a few days – one doctor at a Toronto hospital to referred to it as an “assembly line.” For example, a patient received two transplants in one week because the first kidney was rejected.
When the patients return to Canada, they seek post-operative care in Canadian clinics and hospitals. The staff can’t turn them away since that would mean losing the kidney. Most patients receiving these transplants are of Chinese origin, but one Vancouver hospital has seen a “‘small but significant’ number of caucasian patients.”
[Posted By totalstranger]Republished from National Post
Canadian transplant clinics say they are seeing increasing numbers of patients who paid for kidney transplants in China, and are sure those organs were harvested from executed prisoners.
In what a Toronto physician calls China’s “assembly line” organ business, one patient received two kidneys within a week after the first organ did not work. Another talked about the “execution season,” when kidneys are available most promptly.
Doctors in Toronto and Vancouver say they strongly oppose the Chinese system, which has been condemned globally as a gross human rights violation. But they say it is hard to blame desperate Canadian patients who otherwise would have to wait years for a transplant, with death a possibility in the interim.
The clinics here provide post-operative care that is crucial to the success of the transplant. No official statistics are kept, but it would seem that as many as 50 Canadians have obtained Chinese organ transplants in the last couple of years. They pay as much as US$75,000 for the procedure.
“There’s no question, at the end of the day, there’s a little bit of moral repulsion about all this. The question is, how do you stop it?” said Dr. Jeffrey Zaltzman of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
“These…
Posted by totalstranger
Okay, this would be an issue if the people were being executed specifically to harvest their organs…Horror films are based on this kind of premise, but this isn’t what’s happening.
While China may not necessarily be enlightened regarding the punishments of its prisioners, some will get executed. A dead man hardly has need for that kidney or liver. I think this is more an issue about removing organs after death against the wishes of the inmate’s family. It’s not like the Chinese government is robbing people of their kidneys and leaving them in bathtubs full of ice. Prisoners are being executed for their crimes, and who are we to judge whether an execution is excessive, especially in a completely different culture from our own?
Personally, I think that organ donation should be mandatory for everyone. The religious/spiritual beliefs of a carcass are insignificant compared to the need of the organs to save living bodies. Furthermore, while it may be likely an organ in China came from a executed prisoner, how can a transplant patient be 100% positive? Maybe 50 people were executed this week, but in a country of a billion people I’ll be there are quite a number of car accidents too.
Yet another piece of star journalism brought to you by the creators of the ‘Iranian holocaust’. This story is so full of holes that you could strain spaghetti with it. Nonetheless, you gotta love the quote:
‘China executes prisoners, I need a transplant, everybody wins.’
LOL! I’m sure the prisoner is thrilled…
While I don’t like the National Post, I don’t think we can toss out the conclusions reached in every article they print just because they’ve been proven wrong in the past. The NYT has made some pretty stellar mistakes in the last few years, and I still read it. And the National Post did apologize for running the Iran story.
Here’s some other sources, if you’re interested.
Japan’s rich buy organs from executed Chinese prisoners – The Independent, March 2006.
Britons Warned Over Chinese Organ Transplant Harvesting – AFP, 2006.
Australians Obtaining Organs From Executed Prisoners – The Epoch Times, May 2006.
Sale of Human Organs in China – U.S. State Dept., 2001.
“Q. Do the organs come from a alive or dead donors?
A. The donor organs come from people that are executed in China.” – Chinese transplant organization FAQ
make treason and living off the avails of treason punishable by death….........resolve 911….....sell the extra kidneys to china
Non-violent crimes, at that. Drugs, tax evasion, even attempted crimes that were never carried out can get you a bullet in the head. And the court system is suspect – nobody’s sure the people being executed are even guilty of their crimes. Their conviction rate is nearly 100%, which is absurd. (Amnesty International)
I’m not judging them, I wouldn’t hold it against a Chinese person because it’s their government that’s responsible whether they support them or not. Same with America. But I don’t see anything wrong with discussing the issue, or taking a stance on the death penalty, which has never been proven effective and is often used by repressive regimes to control a population.
Related articles.
Time. (5/21/06) Outsourcing Your Heart. Elective surgery in India? Medical tourism is booming, and U.S. companies trying to contain health-care costs are starting to take notice. Posted at If you knew… 5/25/06.
Two From If you knew… 4/20/06.
BBC News. 4/19/06. China ‘selling prisoners’ organs’. Top British transplant surgeons have accused China of harvesting the organs of thousands of executed prisoners every year to sell for transplants. In a statement, the British Transplantation Society condemned the practice as unacceptable and a breach of human rights.
Seattlepi.com. 4/18/06. Falun Gong practitioners protest Hu’s visit. They protest China’s treatment of adherents. The Chinese government, they alleged, is killing Falun Gong followers in a Nazi-style concentration camp in Liaoning province and harvesting their organs.
Rich nations have exploited the natural resources of poorer nations, why wouldn’t a kidney be treated any different than lumber or a barrel of oil?
Locals in at least one South American nation rioted and may have murdered an American couple because they believed the Americans had come to steal organs.
And I have been sent a picture of a protest in Japan by the Fulan Gong where they claimed that Chinese authorities had harvested organs from Fulan Gong prisoners who were still alive at the time.
No, maybe not proof, but the evidence is mounting that organs are becoming commodities and China’s prison system is right in the middle of it.
While I don’t like the National Post, I don’t think we can toss out the conclusions reached in every article they print just because they’ve been proven wrong in the past.
True, the Post does get some stuff right (the date, etc.). And the Chinese may indeed by harvesting organs from executed prisoners. But it’s still shoddy reporting. Let’s look at two bits from the beginning of the article:
1. ‘Canadian transplant clinics say they are seeing increasing numbers of patients who paid for kidney transplants in China, and are sure those organs were harvested from executed prisoners.’
Which clinics? All of them? And how are they ‘sure’? Did they go over and check it out for themselves? Are they relying on the irrefutable evidence provided by their patients (which is implied later on in the article)? Or have they got some other evidence?
2. Doctors in Toronto and Vancouver say they strongly oppose the Chinese system…
Did they canvas all the doctors in Toronto and Vancouver? Dit their respective medial associations make a statement?
Nitpicking? Perhaps, but there’s no hard proof presented anywhere in the article. We’re just expected to believe it because it’s in the paper. Now, luckily most GNNers will take the time to pick through it and way the arguments. But that’s not how most people read the paper.
I wonder if they still bill the bullet to the family.
Totalstranger: There’s a lot of evidence pointing out that the death penalty does not significantly deter crime. However, there’s a utilitarian aspect to the whole penal system.
Prisons used to exist to rehabilitate people. They certainly don’t anymore. The costs to house prisoners is increasing, paid for directly by the taxpayer. Anyone committing a crime in China knows the potential for being executed. Therefore, anyone committing a crime in China gets what’s coming to them. Executions are swift in China, unlike the U.S. where you could spend a decade or more on death row.
Save taxpayers some cash. $30,000 a year to house an inmate, or $0.30 for a bullet?
That we can contemplate such callousness and remain sane ….
I’m the new Uncle!
Fact: China will continue to be the death penalty capital, whether organs are being harvested or not.
Okay, this would be an issue if the people were being executed specifically to harvest their organs…Horror films are based on this kind of premise, but this isn’t what’s happening.
There’s a lot of evidence that just being a member of an outlaw religion can get your number punched in China these days.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74819
MarcheurDeCiel, do you actually have something to debate, or are you just arguing because someone badmouthed China?
Good refer thesteelavenger
It’s probably not just criminals being executed. And the government doesn’t apply it consistently. And the government ignores its own laws regarding the use of the death penalty.
Unless they can afford to bribe someone.
What if you commit a tought crime and hadn’t tought about it ?
Well … there’s a least one organ we can expect not to see transplanted here unless someone needs a brand new pinky.