{"id":188500,"date":"2015-11-17T14:31:54","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T22:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=188500"},"modified":"2015-11-17T14:35:11","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T22:35:11","slug":"china-bends-vow-using-prisoners-organs-for-transplants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2015\/11\/china-bends-vow-using-prisoners-organs-for-transplants\/","title":{"rendered":"China Still Using Prisoners\u2019 Organs for Transplants"},"content":{"rendered":"
After years of criticism from international health<\/a> and human rights groups<\/a>\u00a0for its reliance on organs harvested from executed prisoners, China in 2010 launched a\u00a0pilot program\u00a0to\u00a0reform\u00a0its\u00a0organ transplant system.\u00a0The pilot sought the eventual transition to a national voluntary donation system<\/a>. Last December, the Ministry of Health\u00a0promised\u00a0that\u00a0prisoner organ harvesting would be phased out by January 1, 2015<\/a>. Now well passed\u00a0that deadline, The New York Times’ Didi Kirsten Tatlow reports that while the <\/strong><\/a>controversial\u00a0practice has been curbed, it still continues under a new definition of terms<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n But organs from prisoners, including those on death row, can still be used for transplants in\u00a0China<\/a>, with the full backing of policy makers, according to Chinese news reports, as well as doctors and medical researchers in China and abroad. \u201cThey just reclassified prisoners as citizens,\u201d said Huige Li, a Chinese-born doctor at the University of Mainz in Germany.<\/p>\n The December announcement by Huang Jiefu, a former deputy health minister and chairman of the\u00a0National Health and Family Planning Commission<\/a>\u2019s Human Organ and Transplant Committee, was \u201can administrative trick,\u201d said Dr. Otmar Kloiber, the\u00a0World Medical Association<\/a>\u00a0secretary general.<\/p>\n The association opposes the use of organs from prisoners in any country that has the death penalty, saying there is no way of knowing if such donations are truly voluntary.<\/p>\n The relabeling of prisoners has enabled Chinese officials to include them in a new, nationwide \u201ccitizen donation\u201d system that China is building to reduce its longstanding reliance on organs from prisoners. The move has been described in multiple state reports quoting Dr. Huang and other officials.<\/p>\n […]\u00a0Still, China deserves credit for trying to change the system by encouraging more voluntary donations outside prisons, Dr. Kloiber said. \u201cWe have to acknowledge they are willing to discuss this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Anecdotal evidence from Chinese doctors points to progress, but also suggests continuing problems. [Source<\/strong>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Shortly after Dr. Huang Jiefu’s “administrative trick” last December, censors ordered media “not to hype the issue.”<\/a>\u00a0Read more about organ transplants<\/a> in China, via CDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After years of criticism from international health and human rights groups\u00a0for its reliance on organs harvested from executed prisoners, China in 2010 launched a\u00a0pilot program\u00a0to\u00a0reform\u00a0its\u00a0organ transplant system.\u00a0The pilot sought the eventual transition to a national voluntary donation system. Last December, the Ministry of Health\u00a0promised\u00a0that\u00a0prisoner organ harvesting would be phased out by January 1, 2015. Now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":985,"featured_media":161564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[3624,2559,1249,4847],"class_list":["post-188500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-ministry-of-health","tag-organ-transplants","tag-prisoners","tag-prisoners-rights","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n