A politely worded but testy debate has flared over a Vatican conference on human organ trafficking, with a group of ethicists warning that China will use the participation of its most senior transplant official to convince the world that it has overhauled its organ procurement system.<\/p>\n
Sinosphere
\nBy DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
\nFEB. 7, 2017<\/p>\n
BEIJING \u2014 A politely worded but testy debate has flared over a Vatican<\/a> conference on human organ trafficking, with a group of ethicists warning that China<\/a> will use the participation of its most senior transplant official to convince the world<\/a> that it has overhauled its organ procurement system.<\/p>\n In a letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome, where the two-day Summit on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism<\/a> began on Tuesday, 11 ethicists wrote: \u201cOur concern is with the harvesting and trafficking of organs from executed prisoners in China.\u201d<\/p>\n China has admitted that it extracted organs from death row prisoners for decades, in what critics have called a serious violation of the rights of inmates who cannot give genuine consent. Since Jan. 1, 2015, Chinese officials have said they no longer use prisoners\u2019 organs, though doubts persist<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe urge the summit to consider the plight of incarcerated prisoners in China who are treated as expendable human organ banks,\u201d wrote the 11 signatories, who included Wendy Rogers<\/a> of Macquarie University in Australia; Arthur Caplan of the New York University Langone Medical Center; David Matas and David Kilgour<\/a>, both Canadian human rights lawyers; and Enver Tohti, a former surgeon from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.<\/p>\n The Chinese official attending the meeting, Dr. Huang Jiefu<\/a>, a liver transplant specialist, is co-chairman of the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee<\/a> of China, which is charged with remaking the country\u2019s organ donation system to ensure transparency in sourcing and distributing organs in line with international standards.<\/p>\n Reached in Rome, Dr. Huang did not comment immediately, writing in a WeChat message that he was at the meeting and would reply soon.<\/p>\n An article co-written by another member of the national committee, Dr. Zheng Shusen, also a liver transplant specialist, was recently withdrawn after publication by the journal Liver International<\/a> over concerns it relied on data from executed prisoners, Science magazine reported<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n In their letter, the ethicists also argued that there was no evidence that China had ended the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners, which they said included prisoners of conscience.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the contrary, there is evidence that it continues,\u201d they wrote. \u201cOfficials from China should not be given the prestigious platform of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to spread misinformation about reform in China.\u201d<\/p>\n In a response to the letter, addressed to Dr. Rogers, who is also chairwoman of the advisory committee of the International Coalition to End Organ Pillaging in China, Bishop Marcelo S\u00e1nchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Science, warned against promoting political agendas.<\/p>\n \u201cThe organizer intends for the summit to be an academic exercise and not a reprise of contentious political assertions,\u201d Bishop Sorondo wrote.<\/p>\n In an interview, Dr. Rogers said she disagreed with the bishop\u2019s response. \u201cI thought that was outrageous, really, to try and hedge off any discussion by saying it\u2019s political,\u201d she said. \u201cThe weight of evidence is such that it\u2019s up to the Chinese to prove that they\u2019re not doing this, and not the other way round.\u201d<\/p>\n