China today announced the launch of its national organ donation system, revealing for the first time the extent of its reliance on transplants from executed prisoners.
A senior health official disclosed just how dependent are China’s hospitals on the organs from criminals, whose kidneys, livers and hearts may be removed in ambulances that wait at the execution ground for doctors to pronounce a prisoner is dead.
Despite a 2007 regulation barring donations from people who are not related to or are emotionally connected to the transplant patient, the China Daily newspaper said 65 percent of organ donations come from death row.
Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu said condemned prisoners were “definitely not a proper source for organ transplants”. He stressed that the rights of death-row prisoners to donate and a written consent is required.
However, a leading surgeon hinted that abuse of the system is rife in a country where thousands are believed to be executed every year and where only one percent of people in need receive a transplant due to a shortage voluntary donations.
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This highlights the difference placed on the value of human life in western nations versus the value of human life in China.
So when China criticizes Canada for our position on human rights abuses in China are we allowed to say involuntary organ donations? All those Chinese apologists should be ashamed of their defence of this repressive regime. They may have a civilization that spans thousands of years old, but civilized its not.