Chinese Organ Harvesting From Live Prisoners
Anderson Cooper 360 featured a long segment on how the Chinese are taking and selling organs from prisoners condemned to death. Doctors have testified at hearings that sometimes the prisoners are still alive. Americans and other foreigners who can't get an organ in time from being on a donor list are flying to China to receive the organs, justifying their decision by saying they aren't told anything about the organ donor, so they don't know their new liver, kidney or eyes, whatever the case may be, came from a person who was killed in order that the organ be harvested and sold.
CNN referred to the "death vans" I wrote about here, which are used both to execute the prisoner by lethal injection and then, within 15 minutes, take their organs.
In an editorial Wednesday, a Chinese newspaper defends its death penalty and organ harvesting program.
Of the 12 death-row inmates executed between 2003 and the present, seven donated their organs of their own free will. None of their organ donations ran against medical ethics principles, the official stressed.
....Another argument against the use of capital punishment is that innocent people may be executed by mistake. The fact is that, in Taiwan, the death penalty is ordered by the court only when there is clear evidence showing the suspect is guilty. The chances of imposing a death sentence by mistake are almost nil.
Is it just death row prisoners who are being killed for their organs? Or are Falun Gong practitioners in forced labor camps like Sujiatun facing the same fate?
Related: Who executes the most prisoners? Amnesty International reports:
In 2005, 94 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA.
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