Huang Jiefu, in charge of overhauling the
Chinese transplant network, angers rights activists as Vatican trafficking
talks begin
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner
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Campaigners say Vatican
risks legitimising China’s practices by giving Huang,
pictured, a platform at
summit. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP
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An official in charge of overhauling China’s
organ transplant programme has said the country may still be using organs from
executed prisoners in some cases, even though there is technically zero
tolerance for the practice.
The admission by Huang Jiefu, a former
Chinese deputy health minister, came as human rights activists and medical
ethics experts voiced strong objections to his inclusion at a Vatican summit
designed to tackle illicit organ trafficking.
The activists said that by giving Huang a
platform, the Vatican risked giving China’s practices an air of legitimacy.
Huang told reporters on Tuesday that the controversy was “ridiculous” and
repeated assertions that the use of organs from prisoners is now “not allowed”.
“There is zero tolerance. However, China is a
big country with a 1.3 billion population so I am sure, definitely, there is
some violation of the law,” he told reporters at a conference in Rome.
Pope Francis has called illicit organ
trafficking a form of modern slavery. At the start of the conference on Tuesday
participants painted a bleak picture of the scale of the problem, with patients
who are desperate for life-saving procedures flocking to countries like Egypt,
India, and Mexico to buy organs cheaply.
Huang, who has long been a controversial
figure in the world of transplantation, said trafficking could be stemmed
through the creation of a global taskforce headed by the World Health
Organisation.
But experts have questioned Huang’s
assessment of the situation, saying China probably still systematically uses
the organs of executed prisoners in order to meet an overwhelming demand.
Last year, China’s alleged use of prisoners’
organs was debated at an international conference after two doctors said it was
premature to declare China an ethical partner in the international transplant
community.
Nicholas Bequelin, the east Asia director for
Amnesty International, said it was known at the time that the vast majority of
organ transplants in China came from executed prisoners.
The number of prisoners China executes
annually is a state secret, but Bequelin said estimates ranged from 3,000 to
7,000. He said experts had cast doubt on Huang’s claims that China had outlawed
the practice. “They haven’t stopped the practice and won’t stop. They have a
need for organ transplants that far outpace the availability of organs,”
Bequelin said.
Details of the process are grim. Bequelin
said China did not adhere to World Health Organization recommendations on how
doctors should determine whether a person is legally dead. In some cases, organs
have been removed before the prisoner would be considered medically dead by
international standards.
“The timing of the execution is – we think –
sometimes dependent on the need of a particular transplant surgery. You will
execute this person at this time on this day, because that is when the patient
has to be ready,” Bequelin said. “It is very secret and there is not a lot of
reliable information.”
The Vatican has released new bioethics rules
that say organ transplantation must involve the free consent of living donors
or their representatives and that in ascertaining the death of a donor, it must
be diagnosed with certainty, especially when a child is involved.