Related News

Home » Nation

How I sold my liver -- and got cheated

SALES of human organs are revealed in China as hundreds of young men are kept in confined apartments each year waiting to have their kidneys or liver harvested, according to the Beijing Morning Post today.

Tip-offs from Yang Nian, a former organ seller, revealed the long-hidden network in trading organs harvested from living donors, the newspaper reported.

Nineteen-year old Yang, whose report led police to raid an "organ farm" in Beijing, sold 60 percent of his liver for 35,000 yuan (US$5,127). After the operation, the agency only paid him 25,000 yuan and beat him up when he asked them for the rest, he alleged.

Yang told police that agents recruit organ sellers from all over the country and feed them in a cramped apartment while the agents look for buyers in big cities.

Sellers live and eat in the apartment for free while waiting the organ harvest. They could back out any time, the report said.

Yang said all donors were from impoverished families and volunteered to sell either their kidneys or part of their livers to get some quick money.

Every donor passes strict disease screening and those with blood type AB seldom pass because few buyers were compatible, Yang told the newspaper.

His liver was sold to a terminal cancer patient in Beijing for 150,000 yuan after Yang was kept in the apartment for several months. The agency took care of the hospital and all paperwork for the transplant, including fake documents, the report said.

Many doctors had no idea that they were cutting organs out of illegal donors, the newspaper said.

Chinese law does not have an outright ban on organ sales, and loopholes have attracted foreign patients.



 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend