{"id":413,"date":"2022-08-03T10:29:21","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T10:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/?p=413"},"modified":"2022-08-03T10:30:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T10:30:24","slug":"killing-prisoners-for-transplants-forced-organ-harvesting-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/killing-prisoners-for-transplants-forced-organ-harvesting-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Killing prisoners for transplants: Forced organ harvesting in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ali Iqbal<\/a>, McMaster University<\/a><\/em> and Aliya Khan<\/a>, McMaster University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Organ transplantation is a life-saving therapy<\/a> for millions of patients and one of the greatest successes of modern medicine<\/a>. However, a limited supply of donor organs, paired with a massive demand for transplants, has fuelled the global organ trafficking industry which exploits poor, underprivileged and persecuted members of society as a source of organs to be purchased by wealthy transplant tourists.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although this practice occurs in many countries<\/a>, the situation in China is particularly concerning. China is the only country in the world to have an industrial-scale organ trafficking practice that harvests organs from executed prisoners of conscience. This practice is known as forced organ harvesting. <\/p>\n

To understand forced organ harvesting, it is useful to consider a hypothetical scenario: a patient in Canada with end-stage heart disease is in need of a life-saving cardiac transplant. <\/p>\n

Doctors in Canada tell the patient he needs to go on a waiting list until a compatible donor dies under suitable conditions. This process can take weeks, months or even years. The patient then finds a transplant program in China that can schedule a cardiac transplant from a compatible donor weeks in advance. <\/p>\n

This raises several important questions. Cardiac transplant can only come from deceased donors, so how can the hospital match this patient with a potential \u201cdeceased\u201d donor weeks in advance? How did the hospital find this donor? How do they know when that donor will die? Has the donor consented to have their organs harvested? <\/p>\n

Distressing facts<\/h2>\n
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