by MITCH MOXLEY
BEIJING, May 7, 2011 (IPS) – In China, where a growing demand for organ transplants coupled with a dramatic shortage of donors has fuelled a rampant black market trade, selling your organs for cash is a mouse click away.
An Internet search reveals a website offering kidneys for sale and the contact information of those able to procure them. A young woman, posing for IPS as a migrant worker from Hebei province, calls a man who has advertised on the website, identified as Mr. He.
“I need money,” she says over the phone. “Do you want a woman’s kidney?”
Mr. He asks her age. Twenty-five, she replies.
“Of course we want your kidney.”
Mr. He tells the woman to travel to Xuzhou city, Jiangsu province, where somebody will be waiting when her train pulls into the station. She’ll be given a physical examination and, if she’s found to be in good health, Mr. He will find a suitable transplant candidate. He says he’ll pay RMB 320,000 (50,000 dollars) – a dubious offer, since most kidneys in China sell for around RMB 100,000 (15,000 dollars) – and promises to transfer the money before surgery.
In China, around 1.5 million people require organ transplants, but just 10,000 receive them each year. The vast majority of organs in China still come from condemned prisoners, but new government regulations have reduced the number of organs for available for transplant. Meanwhile, few Chinese agree to donate their organs upon death, widening the gap between supply and demand.
Illegal organ traffickers have stepped in to fill that gap. Last month, Southern Weekend, a newspaper in Guangzhou, broke the story of Hu Jie, a migrant worker from Hunan province who decided to sell his kidney in Linfen, Shanxi province, in order to pay off debts.
Hu changed his mind before surgery but found that his mobile phone, identification and belongings had been taken. He was told by traffickers that he wouldn’t be allowed to leave the city until the surgery was completed.
The story exposed the workings of an illegal trafficking network.
“The illegal organ trade is widespread in China,” Zheng Xiaojun, a lawyer at Tian Run Hua Bang law firm, under the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice, tells IPS. “There’s booming demand… so there’s a large underground market in organ trafficking in China, acting as an intermediary between organ seekers and organ donors.”
For decades, China, which executes more prisoners annually than any other country, has relied on organs removed from the condemned, a practice that has drawn international criticism. But in 2007, the government mandated all death penalty sentences to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, curtailing executions.
In 2007, the country banned organ transplants from living donors, except from spouses, blood relatives and step or adopted family members. With fewer organs available for transplant, and a growing list of patients in need, the black market trade flourished even further.
Organ trafficking is made easier by a lack of proper regulations and hospital loopholes, according to an article by the Procuratorial Daily this April.
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