The James Logan Courier

By John Chau, Courier Staff Writer

On 11-15-2006, Beijing officials called for Organ donors in China to register themselves, in an effort to stop the illegal organ transplants done in the nation. Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu also advocated for better information to guide those who wish to donate organs, saying China was suffering a huge shortfall in donations.

As a Chinese person, I understand the traditional taboos and religious reluctance to organ transplant: people want to die with their corpses whole. Yet I also comprehend the desperate need for donor tissues these days: China annually has 1.5 million people waiting for transplants, and they only can do 10,000 operations due to the lack of available organs.

Sure, life saving is all-good: even the pseudo-Communists have to agree with that. But what about the organs they DO have floating out there now? Again people think past your short-term media memory: Remember the Farlonkong organ scandal? What about all the political prisoners having their organs extracted alive? What makes people think that China even has the wish to start acquiring Organs legally? I am sorry, but I for one do not place my trust- especially my diseased-ridden body- on the shoulders of a nation that routinely steal living tissues from wrongfully imprisoned people.

Recently, China began a series of organ transplant restrictions: hospitals must be certified in order to perform the surgery, in addition to having written patient consent. Excuse me, is this going to stop underground organ trades? No. Every year, many peasants sell parts of their liver or a kidney to make ends meet. These tissues end up in the hands black market merchants, whose profits help finance, the epidemic gang problem in China. With all due respect, I do not see an effective program against either illegal organ selling- or the gang problem, to be painfully blunt.

I could go on to link this to every bloody issue in my homeland, but I will stop here. The first thing China needs to do is to at least promise a full end to live organ extractions. Secondly, it needs to create special units in organ-selling hotspots, to put an end to tissue mercantile and shutdown the illegal organ trades. Finally, the government must follow through on its regulations on transplants, and create research projects to create type-neutral organs, ending this epidemic need for replacement tissues.

As the second largest provider for transplants, China has the responsibility to follow proper medical ethics and provide clear, accurate records of all transplants. So far, it has done neither. Both donors and receivers have the right to a clear, consensual, and safe procedure. The Human body is a sacred and private vessel, and under no circumstances should a person ever be forced by poverty to sell or trade their parts. China must address thes needs as a government, a leader to its people, a nation with the hope of being a free and righteous member of the world.

Truth, freedom, knowledge.