China’s Chilling Organ Transplant Black Market Exposed

Months ago, six people including several doctors were jailed in China for illegally harvesting organs from accident victims, according to BBC NEWS.

In the middle of the night, the wounded are taken out of the hospital then put into a van which looks like an ambulance. There, the doctors will remove the organs, according to the same source.

Not only hospitals, doctors also targeted jails to remove the organs of executed prisoners with the focus on religious minorities like Muslims and Christians and this led automatically to organ’s donation black market.

UN human rights experts said that they are “extremely alarmed by reports of alleged ‘organ harvesting’ targeting minorities, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians, in detention in China.”

 

Criminal Doctors

Chinese authorities accused six people, including doctors, of illegally harvesting the organs of several accident victims a few months ago, as reported by BBC NEWS.

In fact, the condemned group had tricked the families of the deceased into thinking they were making official organ donations. Actually, the trafficking ring included four high-ranking doctors, some of whom worked in organ procurement in hospitals.

Two years ago, they removed livers and kidneys from 11 people at a hospital in Anhui province.

According to the BBC, China “is grappling with a huge shortage of organs and has struggled to meet demand through public donations.”

Their targets are mostly car crash victims or patients who suffered from cerebral haemorrhage at the Huaiyuan County People's Hospital in Anhui.

In recent years, China used to strip organs from prisoners who were executed for transplants. However, this practice was very condemned, so in an attempt to change this policy, the government said it will only rely on public donations which has led China to suffer from a huge organ shortage that paved the way to organ transplant black market including those prisoners.

 

Black Market Exposed

In June 2021, UN experts received reliable information proving that detainees from ethnic, or religious minorities are forcibly subjected to blood tests and organ examinations, without their agreement. The information also revealed that some other prisoners are not even asked to undergo such a check.

The same UN experts said that “forced organ harvesting in China appears to be targeting specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities held in detention, often without being explained the reasons for arrest or given arrest warrants, at different locations,” and that they “are deeply concerned by reports of discriminatory treatment of the prisoners or detainees based on their ethnicity and religion or belief.”

They also explained, according to UN Human Rights, that “according to the assumptions received, the most common organs removed from the prisoners are reportedly hearts, kidneys, livers, corneas and, less commonly, parts of livers. This form of trafficking with a medical nature allegedly involves health sector professionals, including surgeons, anaesthetists and other medical specialists.”

In addition to UN Human Rights, international human organizations have also highlighted concerns about the practice of removing organs from prisoners of a certain religious minority through a chilling organ transplant black market.

“Despite the gradual development of a voluntary organ donation system, information continues to emerge regarding serious human rights violations in the procurement of organs for transplants in China,” the UN experts said.

Families of executed detainees and prisoners are prevented from demanding their bodies. Accordingly, concern remains at the lack of independent oversight as to whether the consent to donation and organ allocation is effectively given by prisoners or detainees.

 

Kill On-Demand

Last March 2021, concerning reports proved that China was executing Muslim prisoners so that they could harvest their organs to treat dying coronavirus patients. The concerns came after Beijing’s proud because it had performed a successful double transplant operation on a patient given just days to live.At the time, human rights monitors asked how the two matched lungs that were needed for the 59-year-old’s life saving surgery, were found in a few days. It was unreasonable. The fact that two matching lungs were found so quickly, this has rosen new suspicions of organ harvesting in China.

The old man had to wait just a few days to find the perfect matching, while around the world, waiting for a single lung from a suitable donor could be years. Again, China has indirectly proved that there is a whole black market for donations and the victims were mostly ethnic and religious minorities.

According to the news website, one investigative journalist claimed that there were fears that detained Uighur Muslims were “being used as a kill-on-demand emergency backstop for Chinese coronavirus patients.”

Bitter Winter magazine said that organ harvesting is definitely a crime against humanity, and the Chinese Communist regime is totally responsible for this ugly and inhumane practice. The Universal Declaration on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting calls the entire world to do whatever is legally possible to stop it now, and hold Beijing publicly accountable for this horrific topic.