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Much of the information on the treatment of Chinese prisoners comes from Chinese ex-patriots seeking political asylum in the United States. According to some of these former Chinese officials, “Prisoners rarely give consent, and if they do, it is always done under the pressure of authorities.” Because of the imbalanced power relationship between prisoner and incarcerator, “In the United States, prisoners awaiting execution are barred from bequeathing their organs for transplant purposes on the grounds that they are vulnerable to such pressures as coercion, intimidation and inducement, and so cannot provide genuine free consent.” The American Transplant Society concurs with international organizations like the UN, stating that “decisions to donate organs must be made freely and without coercion or exploitation of any sort. It opposes any organ donation by prisoners.”
China faces a serious shortage of organs for transplant. Its population is tremendous, and many of the organs that would be available for use are wasted because of the country’s continuing heart-beat standard for death. Nevertheless, harvesting organs from executed prisoners has been condemned by human rights organizations worldwide. The practice creates incentives to execute ever-more prisoners, whether in order to save Chinese lives or simply to bring in foreign cash. And although Chinese law technically calls for prisoners to consent to giving up their organs, in reality, such consent is largely meaningless. Prisoners are often given little notice of their upcoming execution, they are usually coerced, and they are sometimes deceived into believing that their families will benefit if they agree to give up their organs. As Amnesty International has convincingly suggested, “If consent for organ donation were sought, it is difficult to see how it could be truly free and informed.” In Chinese prisons, freedom of choice is no choice at all.
NOTES/ADDITIONAL READING
1. Copper, John F., Michael, Franz, and Wu, Yuan-li. Human Rights in Post-Mao China. London: Westview Press, 1985.
2. The Ethics of Organ Transplants, edited by Arthur L. Caplan and Daniel H. Coelho. New York: Prometheus Books, 1998.
3. Contemporary Chinese Law: Research Problems and Perspectives. Edited by Jerome Alan Cohen. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970.
4. Hillman, Harold. “Letters: Harvesting organs from recently executed prisoners” British Medical Journal (Nov. 2001).
5. Smith, Craig S. “Quandary in U.S. Over Use of Organs by Chinese Inmates.” New York Times (Nov. 11, 2001): A1.
Justin Ross is a sophomore in Trumbull College