Organ harvesting is a government business in China. [77]

At least ninety percent of all organ transplants performed in China come from executed prisoners. [78] Only the government has the power to carry out these executions, and therefore, only the government can control the organ trade.[79]

Without the death penalty in China, the entire system of organ harvesting would be nonexistent. [80] Recently in 2006, both the Vice-Minister of Health in China and senior transplantation specialists finally admitted that the vast majority of organs used for transplants were harvested from executed prisoners.[81]

Different people in the government play an integral role in the organ transplant process.[82]

The judges and other court officials speed up the process from appeals to death sentence, which ensures that prisoners are available for the optimum time to extract organs for waiting patients. [83] Court officials inform doctors when death sentences are handed down, so they can contact the prisons to make matches for waiting patients. [84] Prison guards and other officials allow hospital staff into the wards to test prisoners to determine appropriate donors for waiting transplant patients.[85]

Many times, prisoners are subjected to a large variety of medical screening tests prior to execution to determine the compatibility of their organs for transplantation. [86] In these instances, medical personnel are strictly forbidden from revealing the purpose of these screenings.[87]

The prison guards also set the execution dates and ensure that family members are unaware of the execution until after-the-fact. [88] The guards also allow the doctors to perform the organ extractions immediately after execution directly at the execution site. [89] In fact, medical personnel are routinely informed of the date, time, and location of executions in advance, so they are prepared for the immediate extraction of organs for transplantation.[90]

Deliberately Botched Execution and Harvesting Organs From the Living

There have also been credible reports of deliberately botched executions to postpone brainstem death to aid in the retrieving of the organs while the blood is still circulating through the body.  [91] It has been reported that organs such as kidneys are removed the night before the scheduled execution. [92]

There are other reports that assert organ removal as the actual method of execution. [93] Living organ donors carry a price premium; thus the use of these methods is on the rise. [94]

One Chinese doctor reported being ordered to remove the organs from a prisoner who was still breathing.  [95] The doctor was in attendance when the firing squad attempted to perform the execution. [96]  Although the prisoner was not killed during the execution attempt, the supervising officer still ordered the doctor to perform the organ extraction.[97]

The doctor noted that the prisoner was still breathing even after both of his kidneys were removed.  [98] Following the doctor’s refusal to continue to participate in the organ transplant program, the doctor was forced by the Chinese government to swear never to expose his work or the fact that the organs he removed were subsequently sold for a profit by the government.[99]

Next week, the horrors of China’s execution methods for organ harvesting continues ….

[77]Organs, supra note 4, at 41 (statement of Harry Wu, Executive Dir., The Laogai Research Foundation).
[78]Id. at 16 (statement of N.J. Rep. Christopher H. Smith, Member, Comm. on Int’l. Relations, Member, Subcomm. on Int’l. Ops. and Human Rights).
[79]Id. at 41 (statement of Harry Wu, Executive Dir., The Laogai Research Foundation).
[80]Id. at 42.
[81]Repression, supra note 10, at 10.
[82]Organs, supra note 4, at 42 (statement of Harry Wu, Executive Dir., The Laogai Research Foundation).
[83]Id.
[84]Id. at 42-43.
[85]Id. at 43.
[86]Brown, supra note 1, at 1071-72.
[87]Id. at 1072.
[88]Organs, supra note 4, at 43 (statement of Harry Wu, Executive Dir., The Laogai Research Foundation).
[89]Id.
[90]Brown, supra note 1, at 1070.
[91]Organs, supra note 4, at 2 (statement of Fla. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Member, Comm. on Int’l. Relations, Chairwoman, Subcomm. on Int’l. Ops. and Human Rights).
[92]Brown, supra note 1, at 1070-71.
[93]Organs, supra note 4, at 2 (statement of Fla. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Member, Comm. on Int’l. Relations, Chairwoman, Subcomm. on Int’l. Ops. and Human Rights).
[94]Id.
[95]Id. at 58 (statement of Wang Guoqi, former doctor, Chinese PLA Hospital).
[96]Id.
[97]Id.
[98]Organs, supra note 4, at 59 (statement of Wang Guoqi, former doctor, Chinese PLA Hospital).
[99]Id.