China 'selling prisoners' organs'

By Jill McGivering | BBC News
April 19, 2006

Top British transplant surgeons have accused China of harvesting the organs of thousands of executed prisoners a year to sell for transplants.

The British Transplantation Society condemned the practice as unacceptable and a breach of human rights, in a statement released on Wednesday.

The move comes less than a week after Chinese officials publicly denied the practice.

In March, China said it would ban the sale of human organs from July.

'Selection'

The British Transplantation Society says an accumulating weight of evidence suggests the organs of thousands of executed prisoners in China are being removed for transplants without consent.

Professor Stephen Wigmore, who chairs the society's ethics committee, told the BBC that the speed of matching donors and patients, sometimes as little as a week, implied prisoners were being selected before execution.

Chinese officials deny the allegations.

Just last week a Chinese health official said publicly that organs from executed prisoners were sometimes used, but only with prior permission and in a very few cases.

But widespread allegations have persisted for several years - including from international human rights groups.

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