China Admits Using the Organs of Executed Prisoners

Leading the world with the most executions of prisoners each year, China has finally admitted that most of the organs used for their transplant business come from executed prisoners, according to The World Socialist Web. Some 68 crimes are punishable by death including non violent crimes as tax fraud, and embezzling.

An estimated 3,000 people were sentenced to death in 2005, and over 1,770 were executed. There are many executions not recorded and in the year 2004 an estimated 10,000 executions have taken place according to a member of the National People's Congress.

In 1984 regulations stated that organs of those executed were to be harvested only if the prisoner or his family consented, or if the body was not claimed. There is little regulation on the distribution of organs.

The Peoples Liberation Army run military hospitals where the transplants are performed. Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu is not calling for an end to the organ business, but instead tighter regulations.

Wealthy foreigners are amongst the leading buyers for these harvested organs, and approximately only 20,000 Chinese people out of the 2 million waiting for organs receive one. The wealthy and privileged are first on the waiting list to receive one.

Tighter controls on the death penalty are being reviewed and in January 2007 all death penalty cases will be reviewed and ratified by The Supreme People's Court. However most death penalty cases in China are unfair and those sentenced are poor, no access to representation, or admission of guilt through acts of torture.

China prefers lethal injection as the method of execution replacing the firing squad because it keeps the body more preserved and intact, and easier to remove the organs. Executions have become a very profitable business.