Medics held over organ trafficking
By Li Qian |
October 14, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MEDICAL professionals are among eight people detained for allegedly organizing illegal human organ trafficking from north China's Hebei Province.
Police apprehended the group in a private clinic in Bazhou City on September 23 as they prepared to remove a kidney from a young man, Shandong Province-based news portal Qilu.com reported yesterday.
The 21-year-old donor, Yang Ming, was allegedly promised 20,000 yuan (US$3,133) for the organ that the team would attempt to sell for 280,000 yuan.
The alleged ringleader, Sun Zhigang, and the clinic owners were not present. Police are searching for them.
All those involved are said to be natives of east China's Shandong Province.
According to police, Sun brought together Zhang Xiaowen, an anesthesiologist from the People's Hospital in Dezhou, Shandong Province, the hospital's head nurse, who was not named, and urology surgeon Li Junfang to carry out the operation.
The traffickers made contact through instant messaging service QQ, said police.
The three medical professions are in their 50s, Dezhou People's Hospital told the website.
Dezhou People's Hospital denied any involvement in illegal organ transplants.
"Doctors are not allowed to perform surgery outside the hospital without permission," said an official.
A shop owner whose business is near the clinic said two brothers and one of their wives opened the clinic three or four years ago. "But they hardly ever talk to anyone," the shop owner added.
The clinic is closed and the investigation ongoing.
Huang Kai, a police officer on the investigation team, said this was not an isolated case. "It is a national underground organization," he said.
China issued regulations on human organ transplants in 2007, banning organizations and individuals from trading human organs in any form. Traffickers face being jailed for more than five years.
But demand is so great that a lucrative black market continues to exist.
A Ministry of Health report last year showed that some 1.5 million patients are awaiting transplants. Only 1 percent of them can find a donor.
Police apprehended the group in a private clinic in Bazhou City on September 23 as they prepared to remove a kidney from a young man, Shandong Province-based news portal Qilu.com reported yesterday.
The 21-year-old donor, Yang Ming, was allegedly promised 20,000 yuan (US$3,133) for the organ that the team would attempt to sell for 280,000 yuan.
The alleged ringleader, Sun Zhigang, and the clinic owners were not present. Police are searching for them.
All those involved are said to be natives of east China's Shandong Province.
According to police, Sun brought together Zhang Xiaowen, an anesthesiologist from the People's Hospital in Dezhou, Shandong Province, the hospital's head nurse, who was not named, and urology surgeon Li Junfang to carry out the operation.
The traffickers made contact through instant messaging service QQ, said police.
The three medical professions are in their 50s, Dezhou People's Hospital told the website.
Dezhou People's Hospital denied any involvement in illegal organ transplants.
"Doctors are not allowed to perform surgery outside the hospital without permission," said an official.
A shop owner whose business is near the clinic said two brothers and one of their wives opened the clinic three or four years ago. "But they hardly ever talk to anyone," the shop owner added.
The clinic is closed and the investigation ongoing.
Huang Kai, a police officer on the investigation team, said this was not an isolated case. "It is a national underground organization," he said.
China issued regulations on human organ transplants in 2007, banning organizations and individuals from trading human organs in any form. Traffickers face being jailed for more than five years.
But demand is so great that a lucrative black market continues to exist.
A Ministry of Health report last year showed that some 1.5 million patients are awaiting transplants. Only 1 percent of them can find a donor.
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