China Admits Use of Death-Row Organs

h.ross.perot writes "Like a page from Larry Niven's Known Space series, here is a real report of criminals' organs being harvested for 'profit.' From the article: 'China is trying to move away from the use of executed prisoners as the major source of organs for transplants. According to the China Daily newspaper, executed prisoners currently provide two-thirds of all transplant organs. The government is now launching a voluntary donation scheme, which it hopes will also curb the illegal trafficking in organs. But analysts say cultural bias against removing organs after death will make a voluntary scheme hard to implement.'"

Comments

Re:A Waste?

[somersault]

I thought it was because the American government/media keeps demonising country after country and then average joe hick starts talking about how evil it is? As soon as they were mostly done blowing the crap out of Iraq, people started talking about Iran. Seems the United States need some kind of common enemy to keep them united (or distracted?).

Flame away, I don't care, exactly the same thing happened with Iraq after Afghanistan (and still no evidence at all of WMDs). :p

Re:A Waste?

[somersault]

True, but America is the most visible country using it. Our government in the UK isn't much better of course, but they're just following the US's lead at the moment. Maybe invading is the only decent way to improve the quality of life in these places (in a roundabout way), but I still get very cynical over it all. Invading - and inevitably destroying innocent peoples' lives in the process - doesn't help too much on the terrorist front either IMO. You will end up giving some people - who would have otherwise had a neutral opinion - a reason to hate you when you kill their friends and family, perpetuating the cycle.