And, families of the executed have to pay for the bullet. Michael Pugliese
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/asia/A49239-2001Jun26.html
Chinese Doctor Tells Of Organ Removals After Executions
By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 27, 2001; Page A01
A Chinese man seeking political asylum in the United States says that as a physician in China, he took part in removing corneas and harvesting skin from more than 100 executed prisoners, including one who had not yet died.
Wang Guoqi, a burn specialist, said in a written statement that he also saw other doctors remove vital organs from executed prisoners and that his hospital, the Tianjin Paramilitary Police General Brigade Hospital, sold those organs for enormous profits.
China executes more prisoners a year than any other nation, and some patients from the United States and other Western countries travel there for organ transplants.
Although China's practice of harvesting body parts after executions has been widely alleged, Wang's asylum petition offers a rare, eyewitness account from someone who was involved in a large number of cases. The House International Relations Committee has invited him to testify today.
Wang, 38, came to the United States on April 30 with a tourist group and stayed on rather than returning to China as scheduled May 14. He later made contact with Harry Wu, a Chinese American who spent 19 years in prison in China for political offenses.
Wu heads the Laogai Foundation, a nonprofit organization campaigning against the collecting of organs from Chinese prisoners. He said that he went to great lengths to verify Wang's identity and that both he and congressional staff members found the doctor's statements "highly credible."
Wang's detailed statements, provided to The Washington Post by Wu's foundation, include the dates and places of executions, the names of doctors involved in organ removals and graphic descriptions of the medical procedures.
According to his statement, the police hospital often was notified in advance of multiple executions, usually around the Chinese New Year or the government's "strike hard" campaigns against crime. Wang said security officials were paid $37 a corpse to tip off the hospital about executions. Kidneys later were sold to wealthy or high-ranking people for more than $15,000 each, he said.
Wang said he worked at execution grounds and crematoriums, wearing plain clothes rather than a police uniform. In many cases, he said, prisoners were shot, then immediately placed in ambulances, where their kidneys were extracted within two minutes of death.
Afterward, he and other doctors went to crematoriums and, in a small room next to the cremation furnaces, carved skin from the arms, legs, chest and back of each corpse. The skin was stored in saline solution at low temperatures to use later on burn victims. He said he also extracted corneas and other tissue.
"After all extractable tissues and organs were taken, what remained was an ugly heap of muscles, the blood vessels still bleeding, or all viscera exposed," he said. "Then the corpse was handed to the workers at the crematorium."
Wang said his conscience has been "tortured" since an October 1995 incident in Hebei Province, where he and other doctors arrived for the execution of a man sentenced to death for robbery and murder. Before the execution, Wang administered an injection of heparin to prevent blood clotting. A policeman told the prisoner it was a tranquilizer.
An executioner then shot the prisoner, but the bullet did not immediately kill him, and he lay on the ground convulsing, Wang said. Nevertheless, the doctors were ordered to take him to the ambulance, where urologists extracted his kidneys and left the scene with the county staff and executioner. Wang and other burn surgeons remained inside the ambulance to harvest the skin. Then they threw the half-dead prisoner in a plastic bag on a flatbed truck and left, he said.
"Whatever impact I have made in the lives of burn victims and transplant patients does not excuse the unethical and immoral manner of extracting organs," Wang wrote.
He added that hospital authorities criticized him after he asked to be transferred to different work. The hospital demanded he write a self-criticism and promise not to expose its organ extraction and sale practices. In his application for political asylum, he said he fears persecution if he returns to China.
Wang said he obtained a passport under a false name for about $550 and joined a tour group to the United States. The group visited Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Universal Studios and Disneyland. He said there were 15 people in the group and, to the best of his knowledge, none of them returned to China as scheduled.
According to the Laogai Foundation, there were 1,769 executions and 3,167 kidney transplants in China in 1998. Wu noted that a 1984 Chinese regulation bars organ removal from condemned criminals unless they, or their families, volunteer their bodies for medical use. But he said that, in practice, prisoners and their families are not consulted and the process is rife with corruption.
In its annual report on human rights this year, the State Department said that "credible reports have alleged that organs from some executed prisoners were removed, sold, and transplanted." Chinese officials "have confirmed that executed prisoners are among the sources of organs for transplants but maintain that consent is required from prisoners or their relatives before organs are removed," the report added.
Staff writer Lena Sun contributed to this report.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1411000/1411389.stm Thursday, 28 June, 2001, 09:39 GMT 10:39 UK China fury at organ snatching 'lies'
China has denounced a former military doctor who says he removed skin and organs from executed Chinese prisoners that were then sold, sometimes to foreigners.
Ten to 20 minutes was generally enough to remove all the skin from a corpse
Dr Wang Guoqi The doctor, Wang Guoqi, told the US Congress on Wednesday that he had taken part in nearly 100 such operations during his time in China's People's Liberation Army.
China says the former doctor is making it up to try to gain political asylum in the United States.
Involuntary organ donation is illegal under Chinese law, but critics say Beijing does not enforce the policy.
'Appaling lies'
Without naming the doctor directly, the foreign ministry in Beijing accused him of fabricating appalling lies, although it did not explicitly rebuff the allegation that organs are sometimes removed from executed prisoners.
China has a high execution rate
Dr Wang Guoqi told the US Congress that he had removed skin and corneas from nearly 100 executed prisoners.
He said he had operated on at least one prisoner whose execution had been botched and was still breathing during the procedure.
Dr Wang said he felt "deep regret and remorse" over his involvement.
His testimony supports that of Chinese-born human-rights activist Harry Wu, who recently released a report detailing organ harvesting in China.
Profits
Mr Wu says rich foreigners pay more than $15,000 for transplants in China.
Mr Wu says recipients pay $15,000 for organs
Dr Wang, 38, said the sale of organs netted huge profits for the People's Liberation Army.
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.
"We had to work quickly in the crematorium and 10 to 20 minutes was generally enough to remove all the skin from a corpse," he said.
"Because this system allowed us to treat so many burn victims, our department became the most reputable and profitable" in the province, Dr Wang said.
'Unethical' behaviour
But, he added: "Whatever impact I have made in the lives of burn victims and transplant patients does not excuse the unethical and immoral manner of extracting organs".
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.
An official from the State Department human rights bureau described the alleged organ harvesting as "repugnant".
Asked by Congress if it was possible that reports of the practice were unfounded, the official, Michael Parmly, said the evidence was "overwhelming and growing" and the sources who reported it were "credible and numerous". http://www.google.com/search?q=Wang+Guoqi+&btnG=Google+Search http://www.aflcio.org/articles/china/leaders.htm http://jinx.sistm.unsw.edu.au/~greenlft/1997/288/288p22.htm http://www.laborightsnow.org/3.htm http://www.isinolaw.com/html/CJSampleEnglish/WangDan/wdan3CourtJudgements.ht m http://www.uaw.org/action/wang/freewang04.html