Organ Transplant

hecklerkoch

New member
Say, did anybody catch 'Inside' on National Geographic Channel just now?

I don't know if it's well known but some of the things I learnt from this particular episode is quite flabbergasting, to say the least.

I'm a bit concerned because Singaporeans are known to go to China for organ transplant transactions and procedures.

In one of the segments of this episode which was about human organ transplant, they were interviewing a Chinese medical doctor on self-exile in Europe, and he talked about the shocking revelation that tens of thousands of organ transplants came from executed prisoners in China!

It seems that tens of thousands of people are executed in China annually, punished because of drug crimes, robbery and even white-collar crimes.

And it gets worse because these people do not even know that their organs are going to be harvested after their execution. Hell, the doctor even said that it is normal for ambulances and medical teams to stand by at execution sites and bring the cadavers inside their vehicles immediately after they fall down to the ground, and cut their bodies up and take their kidneys/livers/hearts!

OMG!!

It should be a concern because I don't think these people were tested for diseases before their organs are harvested, and the thousands of people who come to China, including scores of Singaporeans, are non the wiser about whether the organs they receive are healthy or diseased.

Part of the reason why this is happening is because the Chinese believe that their own body should be 'complete' when they die, otherwise they wouldn't have peace in the afterworld, or something like that. But the organ transplant trade is too huge to ignore for the Chinese, and the rest of the world.

So, I think it's best to let your friends and relatives know, if they are planning to get organs in China - to take the necessary precautions because they may end up worse, after spending tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy organs and undergo the transplant.

It would be such a waste of hard-earned money if the unthinkable happens, and immunosuppression drugs that have to be taken for life, is very expensive too. No point wasting your life if you are not careful.

:(
 
i thought organs are never legalized for SALE? like donors and stuff, maybe token sums of gratitude but never sold officially. So what the chinese people are doing are *surprised?* illegal by world standards? If i'm not wrong in many countries it is assumed that the govt has the legal power to 'harvest' organs from victims of car crashes and other unfortunate fatalities...

from a health related pOV i guess it is okay? I mean with every transplant there is a risk of rejection and other complications right? and it is the obligation of the patient to find the right doctors, and for doctors it is their obligation to as far as possible scout for the best possible donor organ? in saving lives i suppose it is kind of a grey area
 
Of course, it is never considered as official transactions lah, as in I buy your kidney or liver or cornea, I pay you money and you issue me a receipt.

Most of the time, the agreement is between the donor and the person who needs these organs, and money is exchanged as a form of compensation. You don't really pay the doctors for the organs, I think. The medical personnel is just there to carry out the procedures and make sure the organs are a match too, and subsequently provide you with aftercare.

Of course, most of the doctors also act as middle men who seek out people who are willing donors, for obvious monetary reasons.

BUT when you think about the revelation by the medical doctor interviewed in Inside - how many people involved in this (the China side) will actually reveal that the organs came from executed prisoners? NONE, I suspect. They would just lie outrightly, instructing paid people to pose as living donors, or saying that the organs are from a relative who were recently deceased.

The risk of organ rejection is a given, so there's no point in discussing that.

What's important is to know exactly where the donor organ came, or is coming from and most importantly, whether it is healthy or diseased.

Imagine contracting HIV and AIDS from a transplanted organ and not even knowing about it until it is too late, and you have infected your poor innocent wife, and your unborn baby.

Imagine that.
 
It should be a concern because I don't think these people were tested for diseases before their organs are harvested, and the thousands of people who come to China, including scores of Singaporeans, are non the wiser about whether the organs they receive are healthy or diseased.

I think an even more serious concern will be a humanitarian one. China has the highest death penalty per capita in the world. And as you have mentioned, even robbers and white-collar crimes are sentenced to death.

In China, there have been several exposed cases where innocent men have been sentenced wrongly to death. In one of the cases, a man was sentenced to death for murdering another man. After the execution was carried out, the man who was believed to be murdered was later found alive and perfectly all right.

The organ harvesting of criminals really reflects a kind of disrespect for human life. I wonder if such a practice might even lead to cases where criminals are hastily sentenced for the sake of extracting their organs...
 
I wonder if such a practice might even lead to cases where criminals are hastily sentenced for the sake of extracting their organs...

That would be bloody scary and unnerving...

i meant, for the part about contracting diseases, isnt it a prerequisite to check the organ first before the receipent is cut open? i mean they do not indiscriminately assume all organs are the same from person to person right? even Chinese doctors?

but yes i get worried now that i think about it too....
 
China's trying at least. The state recently established a new law last year to prohibit the sale of organs for profit. They're also known for not enforcing their own rules. However if you got HIV from Chinese organs, than it's probably your own fault.

http://organharvestinvestigation.net/
 
Back
Top