Yes, China still harvests organs from executed prisoners

Chinese police lead a condemned man
into a special execution van
to be put to death. (AFP/Getty Images)

China is the world’s leader in capital punishment, executing “thousands” every year, according to Amnesty International’s best guess of the officially secret statistic. A U.S.-based NGO estimates 4,000 executions in 2011 alone, which is actually half of their projected 8,000 in 2007. By comparison, second-ranked Iran used the death penalty 360 times in 2011. The U.S., ranked fifth, used it 43 times.

Another practice often accompanies China’s capital punishment: organ transplants. In 2009, government officials publicly acknowledged that executed prisoners provided over 65 percent of organ transplants. The health ministry also said that 10,000 organ transplant operations are performed annually.

The numbers are unsettling. We don’t know how many thousands of prisoners China executed in 2009, but if they provided organs for 65 percent of that year’s 10,000 surgeries, it would suggest most or perhaps close to all of the prisoners had their organs removed after their deaths.

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Source: Max Fisher, WorldViews, The Washington Post, November 5, 2012

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