[Organ transplantation using organs taken from executed prisoners in China--a call for the cessation of Israeli participation in the process].
Organ transplantation using organs taken from prisoners convicted to death is being practiced in China for the last two decades. These transplantations, which harshly violate medical ethics and international conventions, have become a prosperous market in China. This review presents details of the testimonies of a former prisoner and a Chinese physician who fled to the U.S.A., portraying the horrifying process of organ harvesting from executed prisoners, sometimes even before they are even dead. For years the Chinese authorities have denied the existence of this process, but following massive international diplomatic pressure they have recently publicly admitted to it for the first time. Many Israeli transplant candidates, who are desperate due to the organ shortage in Israel, seek their way to China in attempts to try and save their lives. The fact that they are currently being funded by all medical insurance companies constitutes a sort of formal approval to this atrocity. We, as a society, should stop this funding immediately, and divert all our human and financial resources to increase organ donation from brain-dead donors in Israel.
Lavee
Jacob
J
Heart Transplantation Unit, Department of Cardiac Surgery Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer. jaylavee@netvision.net.il
D001294:Attitude to Health; D002681:China; D006801:Humans; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000208:ethnology*; D011329:Prisoners; D014481:United States