CRI听力:China Cracks Down Human Organ Trafficking

The crackdown on organ trafficking is most widespread one in China. So far, 137 suspects have been arrested, and 127 organ suppliers have been rescued.

Police said the detained suspects illegally recruited suppliers via the internet, facilitated deals and made huge profits from the transactions, which had endangered the health of the suppliers and placed a heavy financial burden on the recipients.

Zhao Qiming is deputy director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.

"The money made from selling organs is mainly taken by the traffickers, and the organ supplier only receives a small amount of it."

According to regulations released by the Ministry of Health, organ donors must to be older than 18 and complete official paperwork to be legal donors.
 
Normally, it is very difficult to find a donor with a healthy organ that matches a patient's requirements.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that about 1.5 million Chinese need organ transplants, but only around 10-thousand transplant operations are performed annually because of a lack of donors. The huge gap has led to a thriving illegal market for human organs, although the government has repeatedly pledged to improve its regulations on organ transplants and increase the organ supply.

According to the police, many organ suppliers are in urgent need of money, with some youngsters trying to make money overnight. A 19-year-old supplier surnamed Li is one of them. He wanted to sell one of his kidneys, hoping to make a fortune, but was caught in such a trap.

"I was told that I could get 100-thousand yuan after the transplant, but eventually I only got six-thousand yuan. I didn't want to do it when I heard the money was so little, but I was kept in confinement and they beat me from time to time, and said if I didn't do it, they would kill me."

In spring 2007, China's central government issued the first national-level regulations on human organ transplants, banning organizations and individuals from trading human organs in any form. The 2011 amendments to China's Criminal Law also introduced more clauses specifically covering organ-related crimes. They say convicted organizers of organ trafficking could face prison terms of more than five years as well as be subject to fines. Under the law, those who conduct forced organ removals, forced organ donations or remove organs from juveniles could face punishment for homicide.

Deputy Director Zhao Qiming explains how the trafficker group works.

"The criminal group has very detailed job assignment. Some of them are in charge of enrolling organ suppliers. Some confine the suppliers and lock them into a room. Some forge false medical evidence, and some are responsible for looking for patients who need organ transplants."

To increase the supply of legally harvested organs, Chinese health authorities are building an official network to facilitate organ donations. Experts say a more consistent organ donation system needs to be created. To achieve that goal, trial systems have been introduced in 16 of the mainland's 31 provincial-level regions since 2010. Under the scheme, more than 240 donations had been completed, benefiting nearly 700 recipients. But experts say such a development pace is still far from enough compared to the demand.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.