Japanese Organ Transplant Agency: Chinese Organ Supplies Will Not Decrease

Gao Ling and Wu Ming
The Epoch Times
Apr. 28, 2006

After The Epoch Times disclosed the news about the organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners at Sujiatun, the Chinese communist regime quickly launched a law that bans the organ trade. A Japanese working for an international organ transplant agency told the reporter that he does not believe the quantity of organs supplied by China will decrease. These agencies revealed the true picture of China's organ trafficking and the huge profit possible from selling organs.

Japanese Organ Transplant Agency: Organs from China Will Not Decrease
On April 18, during an interview with Japan's Kyodo News , an overseas Japanese organ transplant agency said that although China's Health Department has asked to control organ transplant operations for foreigners, he "does not believe the number (of organs supplied by China) will decrease. Actually, to earn money, Chinese hospitals are quite prepared to perform organ transplant operations for foreigners."

One of the agencies told the reporter that most of the organs were harvested from executed prisoners without their consent.

According to another agency, by now at least 200 Japanese have accepted organ transplant operations in China, mostly transplants of kidneys and livers.

A survey of Japan's overseas organ transplants, published by Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare shows that from 1984 to 2005, at least 522 Japanese people underwent organ transplant operations. Among these operations, 151 cases were conducted in 50 foreign medical institutes, of which 34 were carried out in China—accounting for 75 percent of the total.

According to Japanese media, the number of Japanese patients accepting organ transplants in other Asian countries has notably increased in recent years. A Tokyo doctor who treated nine patients who came back from China with new kidneys complained, "The Chinese hospitals didn't provide any donor information, nor did they provide the patients with usage of immunizing agents." He pointed out that four out of the nine patients died within two years of the operation. "The survival rate after organ transplants in China is terrible compared to that in Japan."

These incidents have triggered another round of debates in Japanese medical circles over the human rights and ethical issues related to organ transplants. Related medical associations have forbidden doctors from getting involved in the foreign organ transplant trade. Debate has also started in Japan over modifications to laws related to organ transplants first implemented in 1997.

What Can Be Made by Selling and Transplanting Organs?
A report from the April 18 Kyodo News revealed that a kidney transplant operation costs between 6 to 7 million Yen (about 400 to 500 thousand yuan). But the agency did not expose the ratio of agency charges.

According to one of the Japanese agencies, hospitals usually inform the agencies of the arrival of an organ three days in advance. Such information is exchanged among hospitals, and sometimes labor camps and prisons directly contact hospitals regarding the organ supplies. After a prisoner is executed, doctors remove his/her organs right on the spot and then transport the organs to hospitals. At this point hospitals pay the prison or labor camp a "reservation fee" of several thousands yuan and up to 30 thousand yuan for each organ.

Epoch Times reporters have contacted a hospital in Beijing through a Japanese foreign organ transplant website on which the hospital advertised. Reporters found that the total cost (including all treatment costs, but not food costs) for a foreigner to receive a liver transplant operation in this hospital is about 300,000 yuan (US$37,414.5), which is about 100,000 yuan ($12,471.5) lower than the price quoted by the Japanese agencies. This means for each patient it introduces to China for organ transplant operation, an agency may earn a profit as high as 100,000 yuan.

Chinese People Run Half of the Organ Transplant Agencies Open to Japanese Patients
The Epoch Times reporter's investigation shows that at least nine organ transplant agency websites targets Japanese recipients, and all of them were founded after 2000. Five of the nine websites are run by Chinese people, and at least two of them were registered in China, with Chinese contact phone numbers. After The Epoch Times revealed the organ harvesting issue in Sujiatun, these websites deleted associated pages and phone numbers (ET has kept a record of them as evidence).

The Japanese agency claimed to Kyodo News, "After applying to China for organs, usually the patient needs to wait for about two months for appropriate supplies." However, on the agency's website it is clearly noted that from applying to the actual operation it takes only "two weeks," "three weeks" or "15 days" to get a properly matched organ.

All the websites clearly indicate that the organs used are from people under 45-years old with healthy organs.