Mideast patients get illegal transplants
▶ China’s toughness on organ trafficking should close loopholes: official
A former Chinese official who leads China’s reform on organ transplant called for a thorough investigation after an informant said that a few patients from the Middle East illegally received organ transplants in China.
“Illegal kidney transplants were evidently being performed in China for foreign recipients from the Middle East and the Far East,” a source told the Global Times on condition of anonymity.
Citing information given from an insider from Kuwait, the source said a 63-year-old foreign male received a kidney transplant in mid-September at a hospital in Tianjin.
The Kuwait insider said he has been taking care of the patient after the latter returned from Tianjin. The patient had been given a kidney from a dead donor after suffering kidney failure, said the source.
Health authorities in Tianjin could not be reached for comment as of press time.
The source noted that patients from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are undergoing kidney transplants in China, following two UAE patients who received the same procedure in March and September this year, but no medical records have been made available.
The source also stressed the international society’s appreciation for the ongoing reform and the Chinese government’s commitment to the reform.
The commitment of China’s National Health Commission and the alliance of the international community to support the model of China for worldwide attention is undermined by these events, the source said.
Huang Jiefu, a former Chinese vice minister of health and current head of the National Human Organ Donation and Transplant Committee, told the Global Times on Monday that transplant tourism is strictly banned in China and local government should immediately investigate the alleged case.
“Organ trafficking is a global challenge and though the Chinese government is tough on the issue, there are always a few who seek loopholes, which makes strong law enforcement and public supervision more necessary,” Huang said.
China’s Regulations on Human Organ Transplantation, enacted in 2007, bans the organs trade, and was followed by steps to criminalize the unauthorized trade of organs in 2011, a crime for which the death penalty can be handed down in severe cases.
When asked to comment on the incident, Francis Delmonico, chairman of the World Health Organization Task Force of Donation and Transplantation of Organs and Tissues, told the Global Times that “There’s a great reform emerging in China that is affirming of the World Health Organization (WHO) Guiding Principles that promotes national self sufficiency.”
“The international community wants the reform to be enduring and not undermined by foreign patients undergoing organ transplants in China that deny patients from China the opportunity for successful transplants,” Delmonico said.
In 2009, based on World Health Organization principles, China’s top health body released a notice to ban transplant tourism, which prevents foreigners from coming to China to receive organ transplants, Huang said.
The 2007 regulation should be revised and stronger law enforcement should be carried out in order to fully eradicate and prevent organ trafficking, Huang noted.
From 2007 to 2017, 220 organ trafficking suspects were arrested and more than 100 people were brought to justice, according to data provided by China’s official organ distribution system, the China Organ Transplant Response System.
While stressing the need for tougher law enforcement to eradicate organ trafficking, Huang also said that honesty is the best policy Chinese government holds to establish its reputation in international society, and it has won wide recognition from international transplant circles.