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Illegal organ trade rife in China

Lily Yan for Radio Australia
In China, four out of five patients die while waiting for a suitable transplant match.


Fabrizio Bensch: Reuters

Organ trafficking in China is more active than ever despite efforts to crack down on the trade, with kidneys being openly bought and sold online in a dozen cities across the country.

The Chinese Government has tried to limit organ trafficking by launching a national organ donation system earlier this year.

But the program is failing to attract donors, with China boasting one of the lowest organ donation rates in the world, and instead people are turning to organ trading websites.

One Chinese kidney trading website is packed with organ brokers' advertisements where contact numbers are openly on display.

The ads ask potential sellers to contact them, promising a safe surgery and a quick cash payment.

Official statistics estimate more than one million people in China need organ transplants each year, yet only 1 per cent of them will receive one. Experts say four out of five patients die while waiting for a suitable match.

Professor Zhai Xiaomei, a bioethicist from the Chinese Academy of Medical Science, says it is this huge discrepancy in supply and demand that has fuelled the illegal trade.

"The simplest reason is human organs are rare health resources, their supply is far less than their demand," she said.

Corrupt doctors

She also points out that corrupt doctors have assisted the trafficking.

"The brokers are connected to those doctors who only care about money," she said.

"It's also possible that the brokers lied to the hospital, saying the buyers and the sellers are relatives or have a close bond with [them] as the law allows live organ donations between these people.

"But any doctors with a sense of social responsibility will be able to tell if it looks dodgy, but often they turn a blind eye."

The latest revelations are a blow to China, which has been trying to restore its reputation after being criticised for its use of executed prisoners' organs as a primary source of transplants.

The claim was acknowledged only recently by vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu during an interview with state media.

Professor Zhai says the Government has realised it has to find other solutions.

"The problem with using executed prisoners' organs is that there is always a question mark if the organs were really voluntarily donated - it's very hard to verify," she said.

"And as the society moves on, and [fewer] death penalties are handed out, the Government has to find other ways ... to educate and encourage the public to register as organ donors."

Slow progress

Zhao Lizhen, head of the Red Cross in the southern city of Shenzhen, helped set up the country's first organ donation office a year ago.

She says promoting organ donation is no easy task in a country where people still hold onto their traditional values.

"It's been tough, we made some but slow progress," she said.

"Our volunteers who tried to talk to people in hospitals' intensive care unit or emergency departments were often met with rejection and even abuse.

"You have to remember that this is a country where people only just started to accept cremation instead of burial."

Dr Daniel Wikler from the Harvard School of Public Health works on health issues with developing countries including China. He says a national system is needed to boost organ donation rates.

"Building up a system of voluntary donation and a system of transplantation as just a part of a functioning and adequate healthcare system will certainly be a step forward."

It is a daunting task, but Zhai Xiaomei says the Government has to take on the challenges.

"We can't allow organ trading, it will promote crime, even murder," she said.

"It's not a fiction anymore, it's actually happening.

"It will also threaten human dignity and increase the gap between the rich and the poor. Because organ trading will always end up with the poor selling their organs and the rich buying. It's not a society we want to live in."

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