Chad Skelton
Vancouver Sun, Thursday, February 01,
2007
Almost 140 B.C. residents have received organ transplants overseas, including at least 42 in China -- where organs are allegedly harvested from executed political prisoners.
Former Liberal MP David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas released a report Wednesday alleging China sells organs to foreigners that have been taken without consent from executed prisoners -- many of them Falun Gong practitioners.
The Chinese government has repeatedly denied such accusations.
Matas said doctors from across Canada have told him patients have gone to China for transplants -- often paying $50,000 or more -- but few provinces collect reliable data on how common the practice is.
One province that does, however, is B.C.
Ken Donohue, a spokesman with the B.C. Transplant Society, said its records show that 139 B.C. residents have obtained an organ outside Canada, 61 of them in the past five years alone.
The society is aware of the practice because those who receive foreign transplants almost always require some type of follow-up care after they return to B.C.
Donohue said a small number of the 139 people obtained organ transplants in their home country before immigrating to Canada -- but most were living here when they went abroad for the procedure.
The most popular destination is China with 42 transplants, followed by India at 19 and the Philippines at 18.
Donohue said the names of those who received the organs suggest most who go abroad for transplants are returning to their home country for the procedure.
"In large part, the person is going back to a country where they have a connection," he said.
Donohue said the society has both moral and ethical concerns about people going overseas for organs -- in particular to China.
"There are a number of questions that we have [about] the organ donation system in China," he said. "And the evidence, so far, suggests that things aren't as transparent as we would like them to be."
Dr. David Landsberg, medical director of transplantation at St. Paul's Hospital, said about 20 of his patients have gone to China for kidney transplants over the past five years alone -- and the numbers are growing.
"It's picking up," he said. "More people seem to be going."
And Landsberg said there's no doubt in his mind where those organs are coming from.
"I've actually been told by patients that executed prisoners are used as the source," he said, although he said he didn't know if those prisoners were Falun Gong practitioners.
Landsberg said several of his patients have also gone to the Philippines, where living donors are typically paid a small fee for their kidney.
"Ethically, I'm totally opposed to it -- whether it's an executed prisoner or somebody who is a paid donor," he said.
Landsberg said foreign transplants also tend to have more medical complications -- with some people coming back with diseases they've contracted from an infected organ.
"You're taking your chances," he said. "There's no quality control."
The waiting list for a kidney in B.C. is typically about five to eight years -- making queue-jumping tempting.
Landsberg said he does his best to talk patients out of travelling overseas for an organ -- succeeding about half the time.
"Oftentimes, I don't even know these people are going until they come back," he said.
Matas's report recommends that provinces refuse to pay for follow-up care for those who receive organs from overseas to deter the practice.
Landsberg said he's uncomfortable with that idea, but said he supports another of the report's recommendations: that Canada pass legislation making foreign organ donations illegal.
He said such a law could be based on existing Canadian law outlawing child sex tourism.
The report also called on Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs to enact travel advisories warning Canadians that organs in China are obtained from executed prisoners.
DYING ON THE LIST
Many B.C. residents die waiting for an organ.
- About 30 people die on the organ transplant waiting list in B.C. every year and the average waiting list for a kidney is five to eight years.
- The B.C. Transplant Society says the best way to discourage foreign organ transplants is to increase the number of organs available in B.C.
- Only about 14 per cent of B.C. residents have filled out an organ-donor registration form.
- To become a registered organ donor, you can visit the society's website at www.transplant.bc.ca/
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