Chinese Harvest

Chinese medical officials agreed Friday not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families. Now that's Chinese democracy!

The agreement was reached at a meeting of the World Medical Association in Copenhagen. China has acknowledged that kidneys, livers, corneas and other organs are routinely removed from prisoners sentenced to death row, but officials insist that this only happens when consent is provided. Execution in China is also considered consensual, and their policy of billing the family for the bullet will remain unchanged.

The Chinese Medical Association said it would work to strengthen the management of organ transplantation and prevent possible violations of the Chinese government's regulations.

The underground organ trade in China has been a notorious supplier of organs to foreigners desperately in need of transplants, who make up as much as 40% of the market. Brokers regularly arrange transplants in weeks rather than the months or years it generally takes in the West. With the Chinese appearing to leave the black market, Brazil and other South American countries will surely pick up the slack.

Health officials say the country faces a severe organ shortage, estimating that 1.5 million people need transplants in China each year, and that only about 10,000 operations are carried out. The number of people facing shortages of food, electricity, and freedom has not been addressed, but numbers in the tens of millions.