The Ottawa Citizen

Saturday, May 19, 2007

 

How is the world to respond to growing evidence that the harvesting of organs from live prisoners -- not just criminals but political prisoners and other supposed undesirables, too -- happens in China?

Stories of grotesque, immoral organ transplants in China have been circulating for some time. The rumours were so obscene that the impulse was to dismiss them as urban legends. Then two concerned Canadians, former federal cabinet minister David Kilgour and lawyer David Matas, each with huge credibility in the human rights community, produced a report suggesting that these are no urban legends: organs were -- are -- being taken without consent.

A group called Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, formed after the Matas-Kilgour report, is now calling upon people of conscience to rise up. The doctors argue that every westerner who goes to China in search of an organ is participating in a deeply unethical enterprise. The doctors are right.

There are about 100 confirmed cases of Canadians having had transplants in China. No doubt each of those Canadians was desperate -- the organ shortage in Canada is real -- but there's a possibility that the liver or corneas they received in China were ripped from an unwilling donor. If you received an organ under such circumstances, you have participated in a murder.

But what about governments? China is desperate for international prestige, which is why the 2008 Olympic Games are so important to it. As evidence of illegal organ harvesting emerges, Chinese authorities ought not to be surprised if momentum grows for a boycott.