China Stops Practice Of Illegal Organ Transplant, However, Critics Refused To Believe

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According to the World, Health Organization, China is now taking steps to stop is once-widespread custom of taking organs from executed prisoners. However, it would be difficult to know what is occurring in the entire country.
A Vatican gathering has been held this week and it dealt with organ trafficking. A previous high Chinese official said that China had stopped its unethical practice, however, not everyone is convinced. The Washington Post reported that an interview with WHO's Jose Ramon Nunez Pena last Thursday made him believe that the country has reformed, after he personally visited several hospitals in China.

However, Nunez Pena admitted that "there may still be hidden things going on." WHO's representative believes that the country is now turning away from illegally collecting organs after seeing data about organ transplant registries. China has over 1 million medical facilities, but it has only about 160 authorized centers to perform organ transplants.

However, several critics suspected China's reform and even proposed that WHO should be acknowledged to perform surprise investigations and discuss with the donor's relatives. It is known that the U.N. health agency is not authorized to enter any country without their consent.

As a response, Dr. Haibo Wang of China suggested that their country should not be singled out while other countries do not receive the same attention for the illegal organ transplant. On the other hand, Dr. Huang Jiefu who is the head of the Chinese delegation mentioned about having an increase of voluntary organ donors from both living and deceased.

India's executive director of the George Institute for Global Health Vivek Jha responded that it's difficult to believe that China has quickly transformed its organ donation program. Although China may be able to change, it has failed to provide the rightful amount of information to prove its claim.

Meanwhile, Salon reported that Nunez Pena has announced that WHO officials were now putting their attention on other countries such as Sri Lanka and Egypt to its illegal organ harvesting practice.