Two Australian researchers are calling for the withdrawal of hundreds of Chinese studies that allegedly used organs taken from prisoners without their consent.
“The omerta around this barbarism must end”. In an article published in the medical journal BMJ Open, two Australian researchers from the University of Sidney are calling for the withdrawal of more than 400 scientific studies that allegedly used organs taken from Chinese prisoners without their consent.
By examining 445 studies published between 2000 and 2017 on organ transplants in China, Wendy Rogers and Matthew Robertson thus realized that 92% of them did not mention the origin of the organs. Moreover, in 99% of cases, the consent of the donors was not mentioned. With numerous reports showing that Chinese authorities have harvested organs from tens of thousands of executed prisoners, researchers have concluded that hundreds of studies have been based on unethical transplants.
“A large body of credible testimony suggests that organ harvesting is not limited to convicted prisoners, but also includes prisoners of conscience. It is therefore possible – even if it is not verifiable in a specific case – that scientific articles contain data obtained via prisoners killed for their organs”, explain Wendy Rogers and Matthew Robertson in Newsweek.
No official law prohibits organ transplants from prisoners
In 2016, a report by lawyer David Kilgour and journalist Ethan Gutmann had already highlighted a huge discrepancy between official data and hospital data. Indeed, while the Chinese government claims that 10,000 transplants take place each year, hospital data shows that between 60,000 and 100,000 organs are transplanted each year.
Then, the following year, the medical journal Liver International had to withdraw a study published by Chinese surgeons after the origins of the organs used were questioned by academics.
Although China has sworn to stop using organs removed from prisoners executed in 2015, no law or ban has been passed on the subject and Chinese research directors are not accountable to anyone, Rogers worries. and Robertson.
An independent People’s Court has been investigating the matter since December
“We demand the immediate withdrawal of all studies that cite research based on organs from executed prisoners, as well as the organization of an international summit to develop a new approach with regard to Chinese research on transplants”, claim they so. “It’s not enough to have ethical principles, you need laws,” adds Rogers to the Guardian Australia.
In December, an independent People’s Court began investigating the matter. “The members of the tribunal are all certain that in China, the harvesting of organs from prisoners has taken place for a long time and involved a substantial number of victims”, he had decided after three days of public hearings. Its conclusion will be made in 2019.
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