So, ya wanna buy a kidney ? 
If you are in need of a kidney or liver transplant they are easy to come by in China. They will find you a match in as little as seven days. Come on back to Canada and get as good of follow-up care as anyone, no questions asked, it appears. Cost in China - rising but still kinda affordable. Still under $100,000 US for a liver.
A BBC journalist investigating the allegations visited a hospital in Tianjin city last year saying he needed a liver transplant for a relative.The journalist was told that a suitable liver could be provided within three weeks because a high number of executions was arranged before the October 1 National Day celebration.
The hospital he visited performed about 600 liver transplants in 2005, with each liver costing foreign recipients US$70,000 plus US$20,000 for the surgeon's services.
Turns out this issue was investigated by David Kilgour(Wiki). He was a Conservative MP for an Edmonton riding who became a Liberal and then sat as an independent . He did not run in the last election. As a side note, he does not support gay marriage. He is wrong on that but has done valuable work in investigating organ harvesting.
His report, co-authored with David Matas, is the cited in most news stories about organ harvesting in China.
The report is available here and here.
Highlights, we have highlights.
It is alleged that Falun Gong practitioners are victims of live organ harvesting throughout China. The allegation is that organ harvesting is inflicted on unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations, pursuant to a systematic policy, in large numbers.Organ harvesting is a step in organ transplants. The purpose of organ harvesting is to provide organs for transplants. Transplants do not necessarily have to take place in the same place as the location of the organ harvesting. The two locations are often different; organs harvested in one place are shipped to another place for transplanting.
The allegation is further that the organs are harvested from the practitioners while they are still alive. The practitioners are killed in the course of the organ harvesting operations or immediately thereafter. These operations are a form of murder.
Finally, we are told that the practitioners killed in this way are then cremated. There is no corpse left to examine to identify as the source of an organ transplant.
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[...]
According to cardiovascular doctor Hu Weimin, the state funding for the hospital where he works is not enough to even cover staff salaries for one month. He stated: "Under the current system, hospitals have to chase profit to survive." Human Rights in China reports: "Rural hospitals [have had] to invent ways to make money to generate sufficient revenue".[6]The sale of organs became for hospitals a source of funding, a way to keep their doors open, and a means by which other health services could be provided to the community.
One could see how this dire need for funds might lead first to a rationalization that harvesting organs from prisoners who would be executed anyways was acceptable and second to a desire not to question too closely whether the donors wheeled in by the authorities really were prisoners sentenced to death.
[...]
The presence of a large bank of living kidney-liver "donors" must be the only way China's transplant centres can assure such short waits to customers. The astonishingly short waiting times advertised for perfectly-matched organs would suggest the existence of a large bank of live prospective 'donors'.
This is the article that ran is my paper on Friday.
The BBC had a story about a Chinese doctor who makes accusations and China's response. The article is from back in June 2001.
He said prisoners selected to be donors were tested before execution for suitability and then shot in the back of the head so as not to damage their heart, liver, kidneys or skin.
[...]
The US Congress is considering punitive action against China in light of the reports.Republican representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, from Florida, has introduced a bill to ban Chinese doctors from receiving transplant training in the US.
I haven't found evidence of a bill being introduced and I don't know what became of this sub-committee report ( pdf format ).
I know that the story is a bit old and the Chinese government says it has addressed the practice. I don't believe that spin.
China has a large trading relationship with the rest of the world. Surely some pressure can be brought to bear on them. Canada shouldn't be selling energy to the Chinese. I shouldn't be buying 'made in China' goods.
