Executions and Organ Harvesting in China

by Matt Kelley · 2009-08-27 16:21:00 UTC
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Two-thirds of transplanted organs in China come from executed prisoners, state media reported this week.

China has admitted to harvesting organs from executed inmates in the past, but this time the announcement comes with a vow to enforce a rule that prisoners can only donate organs to relatives. Huang Jiefu, China's vice minister for health said prisoners were "definitely not a proper source for organ transplants."

The Chinese government released this news as they launched a campaign to attract voluntary organ donors. One million people in China need transplants each year - and only 1% get them. Almost no one is signed up to donate their organs after death. The country has a thriving underground organ market, however, which the government is trying to control by increasing access to legal procedures.

Until now, it seems the country's busy death rows have been the primary source for organs. Nobody knows how many people China executes each year, but even the minimum number based on official reports dwarfs the number of executions carried out in the rest of the world, combined. Amnesty International says China executed at least 1,718 people in 2008. Many observers believe the real number is thousands of lives higher than that. Officials claim, absurdly, that prisoners give consent before their organs can be used. I'm sure they consent to the firing squad, too.

Speaking of which, China has been moving slowly from firing squads to lethal injection for its copious numbers of executions. Beijing is the next municipality to make the switch, with a new facility ready to administer lethal injections by the end of 2009. Officials announced in April that they intend to make sweeping reforms to the country's opaque justice system - ending torture, guarantee fair trials and reduce the number of executions. I wrote at the time that I'll believe it when I see it.

Until real reform takes root, however, efforts on organs and injections are mere icing on an atrocity. There's no way for China to pretty-up its busy death chambers until it makes it judicial system transparent to the rest of the world, along with making public the number of executions. That would be a real step in the right direction.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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