Family To Sue Court For Selling Kidneys
Originally published in the South China Morning Post, June 30, 2001
A family in eastern China is planning to sue a court for illegally selling their executed relative's body to organ traders and allowing them to harvest his kidneys without his—or their—consent, a human rights group said.
The kidneys were taken from Fu Xinrong on May 30 last year in Pingsiang township, Jiangxi province, after Fu was convicted of murder and shot in the head at execution grounds, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.
But Fu did not die immediately. While he was still breathing, medical personnel arrived in a van sent by the Jiangxi Province People's Hospital and tried to put his body inside it to harvest his kidneys, saying they had permission from the court to take them.
An official supervising the execution refused and ordered Fu be shot again before his kidneys were taken, the centre said.
The kidneys were later given to a patient at the hospital who needed a transplant.
Fu's family, from Jinxi county, only learned in March that Fu's kidneys had been taken without permission. His shocked father committed suicide as a result, the centre said.
His sister, Fu Mulan, later hired a lawyer to prepare a lawsuit against Pingsiang township's Intermediate People's Court.
The centre quoted a local court official as saying illegal organ removal was a frequent occurrence because those responsible could "get huge profits".
It was likely that the hospital made 300,000 yuan (HK$283,000)—the typical cost of a kidney transplant—and probably paid the court 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, the centre said.
The deputy director of the Pingsiang court, a man surnamed Yang, did not deny the incident.
"Look for the vice-director of the Jiangxi Province High People's Court. He was at the scene. He knows what happened," Mr Yang said.
The family's lawyer said the Pingsiang court was replacing its leaders and he was waiting for the new leader to arrive to gather evidence for the lawsuit. Hospital officials could not be reached for comment.
The case mirrors allegations by a former army doctor who testified before a US congressional committee on Wednesday that organs were systematically harvested from executed prisoners for profit.
Wang Guoqi, who fled to the United States on a fake passport, told US lawmakers he was a member of a team of doctors who removed organs and skin moments after convicts were put to death, passing them on for sale.
He gave grisly testimony of how the team skinned corpses in 10 to 20 minutes and how, on one occasion, a prisoner was found to be still breathing after a team of doctors had removed his kidney.
China insists all organs used for transplants come from citizens who volunteer to donate them before dying.
