newswire.co.nz, 14 Mar 2007
An Auckland transplant surgeon says there are major ethical
issues surrounding the organ transplant industry in China.
The Royal
Australasian College of Surgeons is advising New Zealand patients who are
thinking about having a transplant in China to consider where the organ may have
come from.
Professor John McCall of the Liver Transplant Unit at Auckland
Hospital, says China does not have well developed systems, like those in New
Zealand and other western countries, for deceased donor
transplantations.
He says it is assumed that organs used for
transplantations in China come mainly or exclusively from executed
prisoners.
China rejects claims that followers of the banned Falun Gong
movement may have been caught up in the organ trade.
A spokesman for the
Foreign Affairs Minister says the Government can not verify the
claims.