China Bans Buying and Selling of Human Organs

China's health ministry banned the sale of human organs yesterday in a move that could put pressure on the growing transplant tourism industry.

According to tour operators, Britons and other foreigners have been paying tens of thousands of dollars for life-saving operations in China, where livers, kidneys, hearts and lungs are harvested from executed prisoners. But accusations that the practice is unethical have prompted the government to tighten regulations.

Under new health ministry guidelines that come into effect on July 1, the buying and selling of organs is forbidden. No organs can be removed without the written permission of the donor and only a handful of top medical institutions will be authorised to carry out transplants. Industry insiders say hospitals have been instructed not to accept foreign patients.

The rules are unlikely to ease the concerns of human rights groups, which say that prisoners have little choice but to donate their organs. It is also far from clear that hospitals will be willing to give up a major source of revenue. According to the Chinese Society of Transplantation, about 5,000 kidney transplants and 1,500 liver transplants were carried out in 2003, but this is thought to be an underestimate. Most are for domestic use, but a growing number of firms are offering to arrange operations for wealthy foreigners.

Yeson Healthcare Services in Shanghai began accepting overseas business in 2001. It charges a minimum of $110,000 (£63,000) for a liver or heart transplant and $60,000 for a kidney transplant. Last year, it arranged more than 479 heart, liver or kidney transplant operations, many of them for non-Chinese people.

"More and more foreigners are coming to China for transplants because medical standards here are improving. It is a life-saving chance because if they were in the US, they might have to wait three or four years for a new liver," said Tony Lee, a senior service care provider in Yeson.

He said no payment was made for organs. The hospitals acquire most of them from prisoners, who are said to have given their consent, but also from family members and accident victims. "We are not sure yet how the new law will affect us," he said. "What we do is legal."

The Orient Organ Transplant Centre in Tianjin conducted nearly 1,000 transplants last year. Although the hospital is linked to a paramilitary police medical institution, doctors were unwilling to reveal how many organs were from prisoners or how many recipients were foreign. "I cannot tell you specific figures, but I think the new regulation will be beneficial," said Zhu Zhujun, a liver transplant specialist.