Ending ‘Vampire’ Tourism in China
Is Beijing serious about getting out of the business of taking organs from executed prisoners?
Did Beijing just take China off the “vampire” tourism circuit? And end state-sanctioned mass murder?
Last Wednesday, the official China Daily reported the launch of pilot projects in ten areas that will eventually lead to a nationwide organ-donation system. The system is intended to stop “transplant tourism,” which in recent years has created an outcry among Chinese citizens who have seen foreign “vampires” troll their country for body parts, easily outbidding locals for transplants.
Health Vice-Minister Huang Jiefu, at the time he announced the pilot projects, indicated that China is getting out of the business of taking organs from executed prisoners. Such individuals, Huang said, are “definitely not a proper source for organ transplants.”
If officials stop taking kidneys and livers from the corpses of the executed, there will be no Chinese organs available to anyone, whether foreign tourist or Chinese citizen. China Daily, in a statement that caught the world’s attention, noted that 65 percent of donors are executed prisoners. That was a surprising admission, but the real figure is somewhere over 99 percent.
That’s the conclusion of one of China’s leading transplant surgeons, Chen Zhonghua of Tongji Hospital in the central city of Wuhan. But you don’t need to be an eminent doctor to come to this conclusion. By the end of last year, Vice-Minister Huang said Chinese hospitals had performed 102,342 organ transplants. Yet since 2003, only 130 people signed up to be donors. There are also donations from relatives and others — supposedly strictly controlled by law — but the remainder of the organs had to come from somewhere.
“Once a court agrees,the doctors can go to the execution field, wait in a sterile van, and harvest the organ right after the execution,” said one transplant doctor to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post in 2006. “Such experiences are a severe moral and mental shock to many surgeons, because the prisoners do not usually die immediately after they are shot. But surgeons have to act quickly to get the organs due to freshness requirements.” As this transplant surgeon explained, “To some extent, the doctors are part of the execution.”
Just “some extent”? Doctors are in fact killing individuals for their organs, and the Chinese state is participating in nothing less than mass murder. Amnesty International reports there were 1,718 reported executions in China last year. Observers state that most executions are not reported and that the real annual number is closer to 6,000. This is a ghastly practice — perhaps “enterprise” is a better term — that goes on year after year after year.
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Gordon G. Chang is the author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World and The Coming Collapse of China.
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31 Comments
1. Lynn:This is heartbreaking, and I watched a television show on this exact practice. The American family who went on ‘vacation’ in China until the much awaited phone call came, so the husband could report to the hospital to get his “donated organ” was horrifying.
When the wife was told how these organs are obtained she absolutely did not even blink and eye. It was a terrible thing to see and important information that other countries must be made aware of so we do not contribute to this inhumanity.
I also learned that the “Bodies on display” that toured the world showing the polished bodies of Chinese men most disheartening, and was very saddened when finding out that it too was ‘prisoners’ who so-called volunteered to have their bodies exhibited for the world to look at.
When I spoke of this to a fellow American, he brushed it off as if unimportant. My first introduction to the Chinese mind was after reading Hawaii by James Michener who treated them and their history in Hawaii with great respect and admiration. It seemed close to the story of many of our other immigrants who made their way to the United States, not really welcomed but used for their muscle to help build the country. Despite great adversities, they managed to become a important part of the country and Hawaii in particular.
I also greatly admire the writings of Amy Tan, which may be fiction but I think touch on reality to tell a story of China and especially Chinese Americans.
I hope the good souls in China get the relief they need and the cruelty they deal with every day will end.
Aug 31, 2009 - 12:26 pm 2. canuck:There has been suspicion that prisoners are executed in the order of the tissue type needs of the seller and that the prisons are really just a living “tissue bank”.
There is a Chinese company that manufactures the “harvesting vans” and is doing a brisk business. Obviously this is well organized and highly profitable at least at the individual province level where much of the power rests and it would have to be a very powerful movement from the central government to stamp it out.
Sep 1, 2009 - 3:21 am 3. Don:Sounds familiar. Crimes committed deemed serious enough (or politically heretical) earn one the death penalty with one’s organs harvested for the organ banks. In the “Gil of the ARM series of short stories by Larry Niven as the organ banks became more and more utilized (and started running out of organs) almost any crime could get you “broken up for parts”. When the draconian laws were repealed (in Niven’s Universe) “OrganLegging” became a big business (abduction, murder and the sales of the resultant body parts). Perhaps there is a place for such penalties and benefits. In a country where abortion is legal and the use of the resultant tissue for medical research is legal as well why do we have any problem with the death penalty for violent criminals (and pedophiles) and their “donations” of body parts going into organ banks? What is the issue? If you support abortion the death penalty should be considered “Post” natal abortion . . . and therefor OK. And, the use of body parts? Why not? They might as well perform some good use (since the previous owner put them to bad use). That is what is so funny to me about the abortion “rights” movement, most care not a fig about the morality of stopping a process that has only one eventuality, and yet have some moralistic “problem” with proper punishment for pedophiles and the criminally violent. China’s sin is they use this as a tool against the politically untrustable, I wonder how our left would use such a tool if they had it to use?
Sep 1, 2009 - 4:07 am 4. Lynn:Since the rest of the world seems un-fazed by this practice, perhaps the Chinese Tourism Industry can sell these organs as part of a “package” deal. The rest of the family can enjoy the sights and vivid colors of China while the “organs” are harvested.
or even better…
A trip to the hospital could be arranged at the end of the vacation so that the patient and family does not have to inconvenienced with an unexpected phone call, say in the middle of eating noodles.
This would also stop the waste of perfectly good organs that are not used for that one patient, and multiple patients could receive various other organs from one prisoner. Who knows, long-time close relationships could be formed with the patients their families and the other recipients of the organs, all sharing their fond memories of a very eventful vacation.
As for some of the donors being ‘political’ prisoners, well, sometimes good people get caught up in bad situations, and there is after all plenty of Chinese People in the world. That an innocent might have been used for these necessary medical procedures, well too bad so sad.
Sep 1, 2009 - 5:21 am 5. Chuck Pelto:TO: Gordon Chang, et al.
RE: It’s….
….’Ghouls’, not ‘vampires’, that go after the flesh of their dead victims.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Sep 1, 2009 - 7:46 am 6. Martin Owens:[Cthulhu Saves. (He might get hungry later.)]
Pardon me, but doesn’t China
Sep 1, 2009 - 8:30 am 7. Anonymous:have a single-payer government health care system?
I see the slippery slope here for sure. Once capital cases are used for organs, there are more capital cases. Still, it seems a waste to send all those organs into the ground.
Sep 1, 2009 - 10:21 am 8. Lynn:Whata waste of a good organ. A dirge anyone?
Sep 1, 2009 - 10:48 am 9. Nan G.:Regarding this:
For one thing, ordinary Chinese know they are signing their own death warrants if they scribble their names on organ-donor cards. As it is, China’s hospitals are death houses. To boost profitability, Chinese doctors, as a matter of routine, perform unnecessary surgeries, prolong hospital stays, and prescribe unneeded medicines. The Chinese rightly believe that if patients give consent to doctors to take organs after death, the doctors will be tempted to kill them or allow them to die.
I would dearly love to have the backing citations that prove this paragraph.
I could really use it, and it seems as though I had read something about this lack of trust and medical abuse elsewhere a long time ago.
A little help?
Sep 1, 2009 - 12:41 pm 10. BabyBoy:Well, it might seem barbaric. But in a barbaric system, here is the best solution. We should allow Chinese prisoners to auction off their organs on Ebay or similar sites for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Not only would this provide for their families. But this would also highlight the terrible system in China which is promoting so many executions.
Not to mention, the other major problem, which is that the US is the single greatest incarcerator of humans, in the known world.
Actually, if any country wants to get a good lesson in incarcerating family members, then one must take a lesson from the country which professes to be the most Christian country in all the world. Not to mention, of course, that most of those incarcerated have a very definite melanin problem. Too much melanin, baby.
Too much Melanin? Or too much racism? Or too much lack of education? You tell me. What is the reason for the racial disparity??? in incarceration rates?
Sure, baby. Just because most big black bucks loved to get locked up! Yeah, right you are.
PS: Any stiff dick floating around there? Would not mind paying about 40,000 just to attach it here!
Sep 1, 2009 - 3:29 pm 11. Gina:I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Falun Gong. It’s well known that they’re imprisoned and killed by the Chinese government to harvest organs–often when they’re still alive.
Sep 1, 2009 - 5:40 pm 12. Gordon Chang:Lynn, thank you for your comment, which expresses how I feel as well.
Sep 1, 2009 - 6:50 pm 13. Gordon Chang:canuck, here’s a link to an article on the harvesting vans: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-14-death-van_x.htm
Sep 1, 2009 - 6:53 pm 14. Gordon Chang:Don, thanks for raising the point about drawing a bright line about life.
Sep 1, 2009 - 6:56 pm 15. Gordon Chang:Lynn, you wrote: “and multiple patients could receive various other organs from one prisoner.” This already happens. There’s not much left to the body of an executed prisoner.
Sep 1, 2009 - 6:59 pm 16. Gordon Chang:Chuck Pelto, thanks. Maybe it should be called “ghoul” tourism, but “vampire” is the name it has in fact acquired.
Sep 1, 2009 - 7:03 pm 17. Gordon Chang:Martin Owens, Beijing would like to implement a single-payer system but in fact it does not have one at this moment.
Sep 1, 2009 - 7:04 pm 18. Gordon Chang:Anonymous, because organs are being used, there is a strong incentive to execute. Better to waste organs for sure.
Sep 1, 2009 - 7:06 pm 19. Gordon Chang:Gina, yes, Falun Gong practitioners have been harvested, but that is a whole another article. I also did not write about roving gangs abducting people, cutting out their organs, and letting them die in back alleys, all with the knowledge of the authorities. There are too many ghastly aspects of this general topic for one piece.
Sep 1, 2009 - 7:15 pm 20. Gordon Chang:Nan G., I wrote that paragraph from my experience of living in China and anecdotal material I have picked up since then.
There is a large body of material on these aspects of the health care system in China, and much of this material is available on the web. Here’s something from the offical China Daily: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/05/content_466465.htm
Sep 1, 2009 - 7:22 pm 21. Chuck Pelto:TO: Gordon Chang
RE: Dumb
It’s like calling Bill Clinton a ‘centerist’.
Besides, ‘vampires’ tend to be ‘romantic’ figures. As opposed to ghouls which remind people of ‘reavers’ or zombies, i.e., totally vile.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Sep 2, 2009 - 5:48 am 22. Lynn:[Vote for Cthuhlu! Why settle for the lesser of two evils?]
There must be something we can do other than offer our tears. We must keep this in the light.
Sep 2, 2009 - 8:40 am 23. Mark:Stealing organs or misrepresenting donor’s intent is a reflection of the demand for transplant surgeries in the United States. As awful as the allegations in the story, the nexus of the problem is the organ allocation system currently used in the United States.
If you live in one of the 38 states that has adopted the 2006 Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, it is presumed that you are an organ donor unless they can find information contrary to their assumptions. This change was made expressly to increase the supply of organs, tissue and body parts so that the $20 Billion in annual revenues for organ related medical services could keep growing.
With organ transplant programs bringing fame, prestige and enormous profits, transplant centers in the United States don’t have much of an incentive to ask too many questions about how the organ arrived at their doorstep. A whole body donation is worth $1 to $5 million to a transplant center, its doctors, tissue banks and big pharma.
Brain death and donation after cardiac arrest for as little as 75 seconds is becoming the standard in hospitals to start the organ harvesting process.
Removing your name from any list or erasing your consent from your driver’s license means absolutely nothing under the 2006 version of the act.
Even if you have a written Advance Healthcare Directive that forbids the use of machines to keep your body alive, they can do so as long as they are talking to your family to give consent to start the organ harvesting procedure.
If you don’t express a preference on organ harvesting, your family has to make the decision. Organ Procurement Organizations and Tissue Banks have to follow your instructions if you register your preferences with a known donor registry.
Unfortunately, no state that has adopted the 2006 UAGA has a state donor registry that allows you to register as a “no” or allows donation on condition of just compensation to your family or estate.
If you are one of the estimated 10% of Americans who does not support organ harvesting, you can register your objection and explore your options under the law at http://www.DoNotTransplant.com.
Sep 2, 2009 - 11:50 am 24. Gordon Chang:Chuck Pelto, thanks. Yes, China’s organ harvesting is “totally vile.”
Sep 3, 2009 - 7:33 am 25. Gordon Chang:Lynn, you wrote: “We must keep this in the light.” Yes, we must. Thank you.
Sep 3, 2009 - 7:35 am 26. Gordon Chang:Mark, I didn’t know much about the American rules. Thanks for the info.
Sep 3, 2009 - 7:40 am 27. Lynn:We are actually doing everything we imagine every evil. After reading Mark’s post and following links it seems that a patients end of life directive can be over-ridden to accommodate the “duty to donate”.
Call me frothy but it appears to be something out of a horror novel. I could not help but picture bodies being held in animation because they are “brain” dead and being stored until needed.
This to me would be very possible in countries where the families of individuals have no power to control their government.
I am not surprised that many countries want to control the INTERNET so regular people do not have access to this type of information so they can learn about these things and work together to stop them before it is too late.
Sep 3, 2009 - 9:39 am 28. Geronimo:Dear Mr. Chang,
Sep 8, 2009 - 11:14 am 29. Geronimo:You stated in a very recent blog that there might not be war or conflict between China/India at least until 2012 or 2013.
But whether or not this might happen in any given year, actually, you are very correct in provoking people to think about this possibility, or this probability.
And as the Aussies might say, Good On You, for doing so.
But can one not take it to the next step? For example, to BEND to the science. And also to recognize the overwhelming evidence that if there are say 30,000 weapons around the world, then in simple truth, that they will truly be used during your lifetime?
Not trying to put a damper on your day, today.
But it just seems that any idiot, such as myself, who had taken a grade school course in statistics, might be able to predict the calamity which sure as sht is just about to overcome us.
Or. Do you want to fight the odds?
Then go to Las Vegas, baby. And get one of those famous blow jobs while beating the odds of the house.
Actually. No way. The house odds can not be beat. And we are gambling with our lives. But. Actually we are not the ones gambling with our lives. It is these fcking idiots who are gambling with our lives. AND THEY WILL LOOSE. Sure as sht.
Sorry to bother anyone. But still waiting for my stiff dick.
Of course I will pay USD40,000. But of course it will be financed. But of course it will be worth it.
Right?
Still, in truth. The very ugliest thing in US society is to have humans locked up in cages. Simply because human animals do not thrive well locked up in wire cages.
Not like chickens. Are you a chicken?
Sep 8, 2009 - 11:33 am 30. geronimo:Luckily have just thought of a great theme song for posters on both your blog and those posters on other blogs. You might enjoy it?
This is the great old Sam Cooke tune, ‘Wonderful World’.
You know the one. Don’t know much about….
You can find this great old Sam Cooke tune here on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNO72aCnVr0
The point is. Exactly what Queenan also states. Sorry. But can not deny it. And hope you enjoy this great old tune.
Don’t know much about Philosophy….
Sep 8, 2009 - 11:53 am 31. kerala tourism:But what I do know is that I love you. What a wonderful world this could be.
Captures the whole thing in a nutshell.
thanks geronimo for the tune.
Sep 13, 2009 - 3:41 am