China acknowledged recently that there is a widespread trade in the organs of executed prisoners.
Huang Jiefu, deputy health minister, said that the practice is widespread and that China’s government is seeking to tighten rules on the practice.
“We want to push for regulations on organ transplants to standardize the management of the supply of organs from executed prisoners and tidy up the medical market,” Huang told Caijing magazine in the past two weeks.
New rules being drawn up will limit trade in organs taken from executed prisoners, he said.
The rules would seek to improve China’s image on the matter by giving condemned prisoners more control over whether to donate their organs. It will also make it more difficult to buy organs taken after execution.
Human rights groups have denounced the practice. China is believe to execute between 3,000 and 6,000 prisoners annually.
