To investigate the criminal conduct of all institutions, organizations, and individuals involved in the persecution of Falun Gong; to bring such investigations, no matter how long it takes, no matter how far and deep we have to search, to full closure; to exercise fundamental principles of humanity; and to restore and uphold justice in society.

Human Organ Transplant Data in China Reveal the Chinese Communist Party’s Crime of Genocide

September 6, 2007
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Introduction

1. The number of organ transplant institutions and number of organ transplant surgeries in Mainland China has increased tremendously after 1999
1.1 The total of organ transplant surgeries carried out in China
1.1.1 Grand total of nation-wide organ transplants
1.1.2 Kidney transplants
1.1.3 Liver transplants
1.1.4 Heart transplants
1.1.5 Lung transplants
1.1.6 Multi-organ joint transplants
1.2 Grand total and yearly numbers of organ transplant surgeries by hospitals
1.3 Chinese doctors top the rest of the world in the cumulative total and the yearly total of organ transplant surgeries
1.4 Performing batch kidney and liver transplant surgeries is a common practice in Mainland China

2. China has become the world center of organ transplants

3. Abnormal Chinese-style Reverse Matching Test
3.1 Average waiting time for transplant surgeries
3.2 “Reverse Matching Test,” in which the organ donors wait for the coming of the patients, reveals the existence of huge live organ banks
3.3 Where has the large group of organ donors used in the Reverse Matching come from?
3.3.1 Chinese Regime contradicts itself on the sources of the organs for transplantation
3.3.2 Chinese Regime reports that less than 2% of the organs for transplants has come from the patients’ family members or relatives
3.3.3 Chinese official news reported only nine incidents where the organs were from the voluntary donations by individuals of brain deaths
3.3.4 Chinese official news reported that there is no market for individual organ sales, but China has ample organ supplies
3.3.5 Organs from the executed death-roll prisoners

4. Summary


Introduction

Since the beginning of March 2006, witnesses have stepped forward one after another, accusing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners and then cremating their bodies to destroy evidence. Accordingly, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has launched investigation on the organ transplants in Mainland China, focusing mainly on the period of less than five years from 2001 to 2006.The investigation has shown that by early 2006, more than 90,000 organ transplants of various kinds had already been performed in China [1]. The rapid development, the large number of surgeries, the vast geographical areas involved, and the very short times for the patients to wait for organ matching and then receive the surgeries, and so on, have all indicated that since 2000, a huge live organ bank has existed in Mainland China, which cannot be explained by the number of voluntary organ donations and the number of organs harvested from the executed death-row prisoners.

1. The number of organ transplant institutions and number of organ transplant surgeries in Mainland China has increased tremendously after 1999

According to the data published in Mainland China, it is obvious that 1999 is a dividing year for organ transplants in China. Prior to 1999, there were not many institutions in China that could perform organ transplant surgeries, and the number of such surgeries was also rather small. After 1999, the number of organ transplant institutions and the number of organ transplant surgeries has increased tremendously. Especially after 2001, quite a number of hospitals have established organ transplant centers and carried out large numbers of surgeries, including some district-level Chinese Medicine hospitals, which lack surgery capabilities, some mid-size, district-level (Level 2) hospitals, and even some basic-level military hospitals (clinics). The number of hospitals where liver transplant surgeries were performed had increased dramatically from 19 before 1999 to over 500 by April 2006. In the period of more than twenty years before 1999, the cumulative total of liver transplants was just over 100. After 1999, the number of liver transplant surgeries has increased exponentially. In 2005, as many as 4,000 liver transplant surgeries were performed. The number of kidney transplant hospitals has increased from 106 in 2001 to 368 in April 2006. In the four-year period from 2001 to 2005, at least 30,000 kidney transplant surgeries were performed, which is almost equal to the total number of transplant surgeries in the previous time of more than forty years. In addition, heart transplants, and multi-organ joint transplants, such as pancreas-kidney, liver-kidney, and other joint transplant surgeries have also increased dramatically after 1999.

1.1 The total of organ transplant surgeries carried out in China

According to the latest data, by early 2006, there were more than 90,000 various organ transplants performed in Mainland China [1]. (This number does not include the transplant surgeries performed in the military hospitals. For the military hospitals’ organ transplant data, refer to the relevant investigative reports on organ transplants in military hospitals.)

1.1.1 The number of organ transplant institutions (hospitals) in China has increased sharply

In China of the 1990s, organ transplant surgeries entered a full speed development stage. In the decade prior to 2002, the increase in rate of kidney transplants was 322%, with an annual average increase of 14%, while in the US, the rate was 141% and the annual average increase 4%. [2]

The number of organ transplant institutions (hospitals) has increased at an alarming rate as well. In 2001, there were 106 institutions (hospitals) that had registered for organ transplant surgeries. [3] In 2004, there were about 360 hospitals that had performed kidney, liver, heart, or other major organ transplants. [4] By April 2006, there were more than 500 liver transplant hospitals and 368 kidney transplant hospitals in China. [5]

According to an article from the 5th issue of the 2006 Phoenix Weekly, “stimulated by huge profits, all kinds of medical facilities throughout Mainland China have rushed to open organ transplant programs one after another; even some town-level clinics jostled each other in a crowd.” [6] Many of them have not even passed the technical evaluations of their programs, yet they are still eager to perform organ transplants. These places include some level 3C and level 2 hospitals, middle or small sized hospitals, and even some Chinese Medicine hospitals, which lack general surgery facilities, like Gongyi City Chinese Medicine Hospital and its kind. After 2001, Gongyi City Chinese Medicine Hospital also set up the “Uropoiesis Surgical Department,” “Department of Thoracic Surgery,” and “Gongyi City Kidney Transplant Center,” [7] competing for the organ transplant business. Therefore, the actual number of transplant surgeries is much higher than the published official number from the Chinese regime.

1.1.2 Kidney transplants

An article titled “Current Organ Transplant Status in Our Nation” was published on China Medicine News on December 2, 2002. This article summarized the organ transplant situation in Mainland China from 1989 to 2001: “Kidney transplant surgery was developed the earliest and performed the most, and it is the most mature major organ transplant surgeries in our country. At present, 29 provinces, cities and autonomous regions in our country can perform kidney transplants. Kidney transplant procedure has already been established and tit has become a routine surgery for treating terminal kidney illnesses.” “The number kidney transplant institutions and the number of kidney transplant surgeries have increased year after year: 1049 kidney transplant surgeries in 1989, 2,382 in 1995, 3,596 in 1998, 4,323 in 1999, 5,542 in 2000, and 5,561 in 2001.” [3]

By the end of 2000, the cumulative total of kidney transplants had reached 34,832 in China, with over 5,000 surgeries in 2000 alone. Many kidney transplant centers had been established, which were quite large in sizes and had quite high overall capabilities. In 2000, there were as many as 23 kidney transplant centers that had completed more than 100 surgeries in each center; their total accounted for more than 60% of all kidney transplants in that year in China. [8]

By the end of year 2001, the cumulative total of kidney transplants had reached 40,393 in China. In 2001, there were 106 institutions that had registered for kidney transplants, and 5,561 kidney transplants were performed in these institutions. This was only second to the U.S. in terms of the annual total kidney transplants. [3]

Since 2004, the increase of kidney transplants was especially noticeable, with an increasing rate of 2,000 to 3,000 surgeries every year. In 2004, the number amounted to over 7,300 [4] and in 2005 climbed to over 8000. [9]

By April 2006, there were as many as 368 hospitals in China that had performed kidney transplants, [4] and kidney transplant has become a routine surgery for uremia treatment.

1.1.3 Liver Transplants

From1977 to 1983, there were18 hospitals that had performed 57 liver transplants in China. Among them, five hospitals performed five or more such surgeries: 10 by Tongji Hospital in Wuhan City, 6 by Ruijin Hospital of Shanghai, 5 by Nanjing Medical Institute’s Hospital, 5 by Sichuan Medical Institute’s Hospital, and 5 by People’s Hospital of Guangdong Province. But there was no single case where the transplant patient had survived for more than one year after the surgery. From 1984 to 1990, clinical liver transplant surgeries were suspended for seven years in China, only resuming in 1991. [10]

In the seven years between 1991 and 1997, only 22 medical facilities nationwide performed liver transplants. [11] During the eight years from 1991 to 1998, national clinics performed 78 liver transplant surgeries. [12]

In 1999, the second big wave of liver transplant happened in Mainland China. In 1999 alone, the whole nation saw 118 liver transplant surgeries being performed. Since then the numbers have multiplied. In 2000, the number of surgeries climbed to 254, and in 2001 increased to 486. As of 2002, statistics from the National Organ Transplant Registration showed the cumulative number had reached 996. [3] The number became 1,500 in 2003 [14] and over 2,500 in 2004 [4]. In 2005, close to 4,000 liver transplants were performed [15].

According to data from the China Liver Transplant Registration website, the number of registered surgeries was 5,680 from January 1, 2005 to June 24, 2006. [16] Between January 1, 2005 and June 24, 2007, the number reached 9,911, [17] that is, in one year, from June 24, 2006 to June 24, 2007, when the whole world was showing concerns about the charge that the CCP’s has been harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners, 4,231 liver transplant surgeries were carried out in Mainland China. (The actual number is much higher than the officially published data)

Fig. 1 The Yearly Liver Transplantation Numbers

1.1.4 Heart Transplants

On April 21, 1978, the first national heart transplant was completed in the Heart Surgical Department of Ruijin Hospital of Shanghai. [18]

In the 15 years between 1978 and 1993, only seven heart transplants were carried out in six medical institutions. [3]

Organized by the Organ Transplant Division of the Chinese Medical Association, a National Non-Kidney Large Organ Transplant Conference was held in Hangzhou City in November 1998. Xia Huisheng, the Honorary Director of the Organ Transplant Research Institute of Tongji Hospital, delivered a speech. He stated that 29 heart transplants had been carried out in the whole nation. Among them, seven surgeries were performed in Xiehe Hospital of Fujian Medical University, which had become the hospital with most heart transplant surgeries. [19]

By the end of 2000, thirty-three institutions had developed heart transplant programs, and 82 heart transplant surgeries were performed altogether. [12]

In 2004, 110 orthotopic heart transplant surgeries were completed in 14 institutions nationwide. By December 2004, over the years, 298 orthotopic heart transplants were performed countrywide [20], that is, more than 200 heart transplants were done in the four-year period between the end of 2000 and December 2004.

On March 19, 2005, the Organ Transplant Center of Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University stated, “Since heart transplant was started in China, close to 200 heart transplants have been performed.” [21]

In December 2005, Yi Dinghua, Physician-in-Charge at the Cardiovascular Surgical Department of Xijing Hospital, which is under No. 4 Military Medical University, said that currently about 300 heart transplant surgeries had been done in China. [22]

The following list shows the numbers of heart transplant surgeries carried out in eight hospitals:

Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, over 100 surgeries, from May 2000 to March 19, 2005 [21]

Ruijin Hospital of Shanghai, near 100, from 1978 to September 2003

Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital, 41, from 2000 to September 2003 [23]

Xiehe Hospital of Fujian Medical University, 55, from 1995 to December 2004 [24]

Fuwai Cardiovascular Hospital of Beijing, 43 orthotopic heart transplants, from June 2004 to December 2005 [25]

Anzhen Hospital of Beijing, 30, from February 1992 to May 2005 [26]

Xijing Hospital, 29 orthotopic heart transplants, from January 2000 to July 2005

Fuwai Cardiovascular Hospital of China Xiehe Medical University, beginning to perform heart transplant surgery in 2004 [27] and the doctors there finished 28 heart transplants in one year [28]

The total number of heart transplant surgeries performed in the above-named eight hospitals has exceeded 426.

In 2003, eleven hospitals in Guangdong Province alone had applied for technical evaluation and certification of their heart transplant programs. [29] The actual number of heart transplant surgeries performed in China is far higher than the number reported by the Chinese regime; this abnormal increase or trend in heart transplant surgeries in recent years is obvious.

On November 12, 2004, an article entitled “Heart Selection for Heart Transplant” published on China Top Medical Net (Shouxi.net) states, “It usually requires that the total duration during which there is no blood circulation to the harvested hearts should not exceed 3-4 hours... although many other factors also contribute to the efficacy of transplant surgeries, the duration of lack of blood circulaton is a key risk factor. The statistics have shown that the four-year survival rate was 85% for the heart transplant patients whose transplanted hearts were taken and then transplanted in the same hospitals (duration of lacking blood circulation was 54 ± 3 min), whereas this survival rate was only 40% for the patients whose transplanted hearts were taken locally or from other regions (durations of lacking blood circulation were 129 ± 3 min and 172 ± 7 min, respectively). Therefore, the duration of lacking blood circulation to the hearts is a critical factor.” [30]

If taking hearts from inside the hospitals (where the transplant surgeries would occur) takes, in average, less than one hour, and the four-year survival rate is almost 90%. If taking hearts locally (not in the hospitals where the transplant surgeries would occur) or from other regions takes, in average, less than three hours, and after four years, more than a half of the transplanted patients have died. Xinhua Net once reported that Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University “has a heart transplant success rate of as high as 98% and a one-year survival rate of 91%; both are higher than those of the high international standards, which are 95% and 87%, respectively. A single department of a single hospital is able to finish more than 100 heart transplants, which only a few famous specialty hospitals in the advanced countries are on a par with.” [31] “Heart transplant surgery has become routine in this hospital.” [32] This indicates that removing a heart from a live donor is faster; the hearts are fresh and healthy, and the supplies ample.

It's well known that removal of a heart leads to immediate death of the donor. Thus, hardly anyone would voluntarily donate his or her heart. So, how should we explain the ready source of these hearts?

1.1.5 Lung Transplants

As early as 1979, physicians at Beijing Tuberculosis Institute performed a single-lung transplant for two tuberculosis patients, but they survived for only a short time. [3] Due to the technical difficulty of the surgery, the inability to prevent organ rejection reaction after the surgery, the lungs’ being prone to infection because lungs are open to external factors and can be easily infected, as well as the high expenses, and so on, this type of surgery was suspended for 14 years.

It was until 1993 that No. 2 Hospital of Harbin Medical University finished the third lung transplant surgery in China. [33]

In November 1998, the Organ Transplant Division of the Chinese Medical Association held a National Non-Kidney Large Organ Transplant Conference in Hangzhou City. A report given during the meeting stated that based on incomplete statistics, nine lung transplants had been carried out in the nation.

Thereafter, double-lung transplants or single-lung transplants were done, in succession, in Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Hunan and other places. The number of lung transplants recorded thus reached 13.

Since 2002, at least 10 hospitals in the country have developed a lung transplant program, and more than 50 transplant surgeries were performed. So far, the hospitals where the physicians have performed Sequential Double-Lung Transplant surgeries include Anzhen Hospital of Beijing, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospitals, and Wuxi Chest Hospital. [34] The Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital has performed seven single-lung transplant surgeries to treat pulmonary emphysema and lymph-leiomyoma. [35]

A report during the 2005 National Organ Transplant Conference stated: In 2004, eight institutions performed twenty-one single-lung transplants and five double-lung transplants. By December 2004, over the years, 43 single-lung transplants and 8 double-lung transplants were performed nation-wide. [20]

However, according to the information from Wuxi Chest Hospital, in the two years from September 2002 to October 2004, over 30 single-lung and double-lung transplants were performed in this city-level hospital. [36]

Because a lung functions to allow people to breath and supplies oxygen, and is vital to sustention of a life, a double-lung donor will die for sure after his or her lungs are removed.

1.1.6 Multi-organs joint transplants

“Large organ transplants and multi-organ transplants have become routine surgeries in the hospitals in Beijing.” [37] But all people with basic medical knowledge know that removing multiple organs from a live person will lead to immediate death of this person.

(a) Joint pancreas-kidney transplants

In 1989, the first joint pancreas-kidney transplant was performed at the Organ Transplant Research Institute of Tongji Medical University. By November 1998, a total of 12 joint pancreas-kidney transplants were performed in Mainland China. [19]

As of 2001, there were 20 institutions in the nation that had performed 93 joint pancreas-kidney transplants. So far, institutions where more of such transplants have been preformed include: The No.1 Hospital of the College of Medicine in Zhejiang University, the Organ Transplant Research Institute of Tongji Medical University, the No.1 Hospital of the China Medical University, and the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital. [3]

Between January 2000 and August 2005, 56 joint pancreas-kidney transplants were performed in the Organ Transplant Institute of Tongji Medical College in Huazhong University of Science and Technology. [20]

(b) Joint Liver-kidney transplants

In 2001, No.1 People’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University performed the first joint liver-kidney transplant. As of today, they have completed 22 such surgeries. [38]

In 2005, twenty-one joint liver-kidney transplants were performed in the Oriental Organ Transplant Center alone. [39]

(c) Joint Heart-lung transplant

By December 2004, twenty-seven joint heart-lung joint transplants were completed nationwide. [20]

1.2 Grand total and yearly numbers of organ transplant surgeries by hospitals

1.2.1 A large number of hospitals’ transplant centers were established in or after 2001

Table 1. Part of the Organ Transplant Centers Established in or after 2001

Hospitals Transplant Center Year Established Number of Kidney Transplants Number of Liver Transplants
Fudan University Organ Transplant Center of Fudan University 2,000 close to 1,000
Over 100 every year, increasing at 50% each year
Over 200
Beijing University Organ Transplant Center of Beijing University 2001    
No.406 Hospital of People's Liberation Army (PLA) Urological Surgery Research Center of Jinan Military Region 2001 103 surgeries in 2001  
Gongyi City Kidney Transplant Center   2001    
Beijing University No.3 Hospital Organ Transplant Center   2001    
Southwest Liver and Gall Surgery Hospital PLA Liver Transplant Key Research Lab 2001    
Laixi City No.2 People’s Hospital in Qingdao   2001 Over 100  
No.181 Hospital of PLA in Guilin, Guangxi Organ Transplant Department of Kidney Disease Research Institute in Guangzhou Military Region      
Qianfoshan Hospital in Shandong Province Liver Transplant Center of the Hospital   2002    
Beijing Chaoyang Hospital of Capital Medical University Beijing Organ Transplant Center 2002    
No.309 General Hospital of PLA Organ Transplant Center of 309 Hospital 2002 Over 1200, Established a record of completing 12 surgeries in one night 110
General Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Liver Transplant Center of Armed Police General Hospital 2003 Over 1000 506
You’an Hospital of Beijing Liver Transplant Center 2003    
No.2 Hospital (Changzheng Hospital in Shanghai) of No.2 Military Medical University Organ Transplant Research Center of PLA 2003 3000, More than 200 each year Close to 300, More than 130 each year
PLA Bayi Hospital in Nanjing Liver Transplant Center of Nanjing Military Region 2003   82
 
Shanghai Organ Transplant Hospital   2004    
No.1 Hospital of Zhengzhou University Organ Transplant Center of No.1 Hospital of Zhengzhou University 2004 Mainly involved in kidney, liver, pancreas, and other major organ transplant as well as joint multi-organ transplants; Over 60 each year, and increasing 30% each year  

 


1.2.2 The cumulative totals and yearly totals of organ transplant surgeries by certain hospitals [8]

Orient Organ Transplant Center (OOTC) of Tianjin First Central Hospital

Currently, the Department of Liver Transplant of Orient Organ Transplant Center (OOTC) is the largest liver transplant center in China. The number of technical personnel there has increased five times in five years. So far, the center has set the record of having performed most liver transplant surgeries in China; it has also been ranked first places in several other areas. [40]

Tianjin First Central Hospital has five liver transplant teams and two kidney transplant teams. It has the capability of simultaneously performing nine liver transplant surgeries and eight kidney transplant surgeries. It possesses nine vehicles specially equipped for transplant surgeries. [41]

The Chosun Ilbo (the largest newspaper in Korea), though, reported that this hospital has eight liver and three kidney transplant teams, that is, a total of eleven organ transplant teams. [42]

In 2002, Tianjin City government invested and built the OOTC’s central building, which has a space of 30,000 square meters and 500 beds for transplant patients. This facility was designed that 500 liver transplant surgeries and 300 kidney transplant surgeries could be performed every year. It also has the capability of performing transplant surgeries of other organs and tissues, such as heart, lung, intestine, pancreas, and cornea, and others. [41]

In 2003, 384 liver transplants were completed in this hospital, that is, more than one liver surgery every day. [43]

In 2004, surgeons of this hospital completed 507 liver transplants inside this hospital and nearly 300 liver transplants outside the hospital. So this hospital broke the world record of most liver transplant surgeries in one year, which had been kept by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for almost ten years. [44]

With the continuing increase of the numbers of organ transplant, liver transplant and kidney transplant surgeries have become routine at OOTC. [45]

By 2004, OOTC had completed a cumulative total of 2,248 liver transplants. The center, on average, also completed 300 kidney transplants and 600 liver transplants every year. The center ranks No. 1 in the world in terms of the average number of annual liver transplant surgeries.

Fig. 2 The Cumulative Total of Liver Transplantations Performed at OOTC by 2004

The words in the chart say “Until the present, we have completed 2,248 liver transplant surgeries, and in last year, the first-year survival rate of the transplanted patients was as high as 97%."

Fig. 3 Yearly Numbers of Liver Transplants at OOTC by 2004

Please note that the above two figures have already been removed from the website.

The above chart shows that the annual number of liver transplant surgeries had increased by 200 times from 1998 to 2004.

In OOTC’s year-end review meeting of 2005, it was reported that in 2005, 647 orthotopic liver transplants, 436 kidney transplants, 21 liver-kidney joint transplants, and two pancreas-kidney joint transplants were performed at OOTC. [45]

The organ transplant professionals of Tianjin First Central Hospital have also assisted 47 medical institutions in 16 provinces in developing the liver transplant programs, and they have also assisted other hospitals in completing more than 300 liver transplants. [46]

It should be particularly noted that the liver transplant surgeries at the Armed Police General Hospital in Beijing are also performed by the OOTC organ transplant teams. In 2005, more than 220 liver transplant surgeries were completed in the hospital. [42]

Fudan University Organ Transplant Center
Fudan University Organ Transplant Center was established on October 30, 2001. Cumulatively, near 1,000 kidney transplant surgeries have been completed in the center, which is, on average, over 100 surgeries every year; the annual number is still increasing at a rate of 50%. [47] Since 2001, liver transplantation at the center has entered a stage of rapid growth; and over 200 liver transplant surgeries were completed there. In May 2000, this center finished its first heart transplant surgery, and it also completed six heart-lung joint transplants and eleven liver-kidney joint transplants. So far, 107 heart transplant surgeries have been completed there. [48]

The First Hospital of Zhongshan University
This hospital’s its first kidney transplant surgery was performed in 1972. So far, more than 2,500 kidney transplants have been carried out there. By December 2003, nearly 400 liver transplants had been completed. So far, the yearly number of liver transplant surgeries in this hospital exceeds 100; to date, 12 surgeries have already been completed.

In 1996, the First Hospital of Zhongshan University was approved by the Chinese Ministry of Health as a national-level liver transplant technology training center. Two liver transplant training sessions have been held there, and the professionals from 42 medical institutions in China have come to this hospital to learn liver transplant procedures. [49]

The First People’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University

The First People’s Hospital in Shanghai is now the clinical medical school of Fudan University (the hospital formerly belonged to Shanghai Medical University). It is also the affiliated hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. [50]

Based on persistent, independent clinical researches in the areas of liver transplants and liver-kidney, pancreas-kidney, and other multi-organ joint transplants, several teams have been established in the hospital, which include the liver transplant team, organ acquisition team, ICU (intensive care unit) team, perioperative team, anti-infection team, transplant pathology team, and postoperative follow-up team. [51] So far, a cumulative total of 2,012 kidney transplant surgeries have been performed in the hospital; on average, 150 kidney transplants were carried out every year. From 2001 to January 2006, 473 liver transplants, 22 joint liver-kidney transplants, and 6 joint pancreas-kidney transplants were completed in the hospital. [38]

Fig. 4 Yearly liver transplant numbers in the First People’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University


For the post-transplant surgical patients, the hospital makes regular liver biopsy for pathological examination. The surgeons at the hospital have performed over1,000 times of pathological examination of the transplanted livers tissues. It should be emphasized that the doctors who do the liver biopsy examination in the hospital are also the organ transplant surgeons. [38]

Organ Transplant Research Institute of Tongji Medical University

The Organ Transplant Research Institute is now affiliated with Tongji Medical College of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology. This institute and the Respiratory Medical Laboratory are the key laboratories of the Chinese Ministry of Health. On top of the new outpatient service building is a special-purpose helicopter parking area. Transportation from there to the emergency center takes only three minutes. [52]

Since 1977, that hospital's Organ Transplant Department has carried out transplant surgeries with fifteen kinds of organs, including kidney, liver, pancreas, spleen, embryo kidney, joint transplantation of pancreas and kidney, adrenal gland, side thyroid gland, thymus, bone marrow, spleen cells, liver cells, homogeneous pancreas islet, heterogeneous pancreas islet, and multiple, joint abdominal organ transplants. [53]

The institute performed one surgery of multiple, joint abdominal organ transplants. During the surgery, the doctors removed all organs in the patient’s upper abdominal area, including liver, gall, spleen, pancreatic gland, greater part of the stomach, duodenum, large or small omentum, a part of the small intestine. The lymph nodes on the peritoneum were also removed. Then, the doctors put the donor's liver, pancreas gland and duodenum into the patient’s abdomen.The patient thus received a “whole new set” of organs.

According to that hospital's president Chen Zhonghua, several technological breakthroughs have assured the success of that surgery, which included matching the donor's major abdominal artery with the general liver artery, maximizing the blood supply to the organs for transplanting (it is for sure that the supplier of the organs was alive while his or her organs were removed), minimizing damage to the recipient's major abdominal artery, and using a direct matching technique instead of a vein reversing technique. [54]

(3) A strange phenomenon in Mainland China – 500 homologous renal transplants were performed in a county-level Chinese medicine hospital

Gongyi City Kidney Transplant Center was established in 2001.

The China News of Traditional Chinese Medicine described Gongyi City Chinese Medicine Hospital in this way: “The Department of Urologic Surgery of Gongyi City Chinese Medicine Hospital is a medical facility that has comprehensively combined brain surgery, urologic surgery, and homogeneous foreign body kidney transplant surgery. It has advanced equipment and high-level expertise.” [7]

Gongyi is a county-level city under Zhengzhou City of Henan Province. However, for such a county-level, small Chinese medicine hospital (a county-level, medium to small hospital that mainly practices the traditional Chinese medicine and uses Chinese medicinal herbs), which either has a unclear understanding of the specializations of the Western medical practices, or, most likely, lacks sufficient technical expertise for such specializations, it has gone so far as to establish an unusual surgical center of Western medicine, where very challenging, highly specialized surgeries of Western medicine are practiced. Its kidney transplant center can accommodate twelve patients simultaneously; as many as eight kidney transplants can be done in one day. Li Hongdao, head of the Department of Urologic Surgery of this center, has performed more than 500 surgeries of homogeneous foreign body kidney transplant. [55] So what are the causes that have made the hospital suddenly become a kidney transplant center in this region?

1.3 Chinese doctors top the rest of the world in the cumulative total and the yearly total of organ transplant surgeries

Based on the data published in Mainland China, prior to 1999, the cumulative total of liver transplants was just over 100. But in the short period of four to five years after 1999, when the second wave of liver transplant started, there were a quite number of hospitals where one doctor could have performed several hundreds and even over one thousand liver transplant surgeries (which was at least equivalent to one transplant surgery every day). At present, there are more than 500 liver transplant hospitals in China, and each hospital has several to more than ten doctors who can perform these “extremely profitable” organ transplant surgeries.

Every one knows that one person can only have one liver, which is the human organ for metabolism and detoxification, and no one can live after his or her liver is removed.

These official numbers of organ transplants reported in China are already enough to make people shocked! However, from the cumulative totals and yearly totals of organ transplant surgeries performed in some hospitals or by some doctors we had investigated, which are only a partial list of the organ transplant hospitals or doctors in China, we can see that the actual cumulative total and yearly total of organ transplant surgeries are several times higher than the numbers officially reported in Mainland China.

Since 1999, Chinese doctors have topped the world in the cumulative total and yearly total of organ transplants, and especially in the daily total of such surgeries.

Shen Zhongyang:

He is the director of the Orient Organ Transplant Center (OOTC), and of Liver Transplant Research Institute in Armed Police General Hospital. He is the chairman of Tianjin Organ Transplant Association. On May 10, 2002, he was appointed a professor of the Shandong Qianfoshan Hospital of Clinical Medical College in Shandong University. Shen established the OOTC’s Shandong Liver Transplant Center.

In 2001, Shen established the Liver Transplant Center of Armed Police General Hospital in Beijing and he was the director of the center. He performs more than a hundred liver transplant surgeries every year, which makes him rank No. 1 in Beijing area.

In the field of liver transplant in Mainland China, Shen has continuously kept the record of performing the most such surgeries. In 2001, he performed 109 liver transplant and 80 kidney transplant surgeries. He is in charge of the sourcing of organ donors, and the designing of the pre-and post-surgical treatment protocols and of common diagnostic procedures. [56]

He once performed four liver transplant surgeries in four days, oversaw three liver transplants and three kidney transplant surgeries in a single day, finished four liver transplants and six kidney transplants in two days, and oversaw and successfully administered two liver and six kidney transplant surgeries (that is, a total of eight liver or kidney transplant surgeries) in one day. [57]

On March 17, 2005, Shen completed his 1,600th liver transplant surgery, so he ranks on the top in the world. [58]

Chen Guihua:
He is director of the Organ Transplant Institute of Zhongshan University. He has supervised and finished more than 1,000 liver transplant surgeries, which accounts for 1/10 of the total of liver transplant surgeries in China. In 2005 alone, he completed 246 liver transplants. [59]

Guan Delin:
He is the physician-in-charge of the Department of Urologic Surgery of the No. 1 Hospital of Tsinghua University. He is an expert who was selected by the government to receive the special government allowances. He is now the vice president of the No. 1 Hospital of Tsinghua University and, at the same time, director of the Kidney Illness Department (Urologic Medical Center) and of the Department of Urologic Surgery. He is also the deputy chairman of the Overseas Chinese Organ Transplant Association and deputy director of Beijing Organ Transplant Center. Guan Delin has performed more than 2,700 kidney transplant surgeries, more than 40 kidney transplants where the donors were relatives, and nearly 20 joint pancreas-kidney transplants. [60]

Huang Jiefu:
He is the current Deputy Minister of Health and the director of Guangdong Province Organ Transplant Research Center. Huang has organized a liver transplant team that mainly consists of middle-aged and young doctors who had studied abroad. Up to present, he has performed 340 liver transplants. He has been well recognized as the driving force for the second wave of liver transplants in Mainland China. This era of the second liver transplant has paralleled and coincided with the peak of the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. [61]

Zeng Fanjun:
Since 2000, he has been the director of the Tongji Hospital’s Organ Transplant Division. In the same year, he began to independently carry out liver transplant surgeries. So far, he has independently performed more than a thousand cadaver-donated kidney transplants, over 100 kidney transplants from living donors, and over 300 liver transplants. [62]

He Xiaoshun:
He is the director of the Organ Transplant Center at the First Hospital of Zhongshan University. He has overseen, participated in, or performed 550 liver transplant surgeries. He successfully performed the first upper abdominal multi-organ transplant in Asia; so far he has now successfully carried out five such surgeries. [63]

Zheng Shusen:
He is the current vice president of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, president of the First Hospital of the School of Medicine, and director of the Ministry of Health’s Key Research Laboratory of Joint Multi-Organ Transplant. He is also the vice chairman of China Organ Transplant Association, leader of the Liver Transplant Division, a standing committee member of the Surgery Division of China Medical Association, and leader of the association’s Organ Transplant Division, and director of Fudan University Organ Transplant Research Institute. In 1993, he performed the first liver transplant in Zhejiang Province. Up to date, he has successfully performed more than 400 liver transplant surgeries. [64]

1.4 Performing batch kidney and liver transplant surgeries is a common practice in Mainland China

The following sketchy information demonstrates that in Mainland China, throughout the country, it is a very common practice to perform batch organ transplant surgeries, that is, in the same day or time, several and even over ten liver or kidney transplants are carried out simultaneously.

1.4.1 As many as a dozen organ transplants were completed in one day

According to a report from The Chosun Ilbo, Tianjin First Central Hospital has eight liver transplant surgery groups and three kidney transplant teams, that is, a total of eleven specialized transplant teams. It has more than 50 doctors. In December 2004, the hospital set a record of finishing 44 liver transplants in one week, which means an average of about nine surgeries in one working day based on five working days in a week. [42]

According to a Xinhua Net report in Tianjin on February 7, 2005, in the first month of 2005, Tianjin First Central Hospital had already successfully completed 108 liver transplants (which, based on five days in a week, amounted to four to five liver transplant surgeries per day) and 43 kidney transplants. [65]

An article entitled “Survey of foreigners receiving organ transplants in China,” in the fifth issue of Phoenix TV Weekly of 2006, said, “The doctors in the Organ Transplant Surgery Department at Tianjin First Central Hospital are so busy in going back and forth between the patient rooms and surgery rooms that they even have no time to greet each other. They often said one thing, ‘I am extremely busy these few days, and I need to complete over ten organ transplant surgeries in these several days.’ Some doctors even need to hurry up and carry out the surgeries in the night, so they could not get any sleep.” “There are also in-season and off-season differences for liver transplants.’ But some doctors complained that the off-season was just the one month after the Chinese New Year, but before the New Year, they were so busy that they never got a chance to go home.”

In the two weeks from December 16 to December 30, 2005, 53 liver transplants were performed in the transplant center.

A patient family member revealed to the Phoenix TV Weekly that this transplant center had performed as many as 24 liver and kidney transplant surgeries in one day. [66]

On March 14 2006, Guangzhou Daily reported, “Recently, in the surgery rooms of First Hospital of Zhongshan University, the reporter personally witnessed the scene that five liver transplants and six kidney transplants were being simultaneously carried out…the record of this hospital’s transplant center was 19 kidney transplants in one day, while the record of liver transplant was six in one day, plus one multi-organ transplant in that day." [67]

On April 28, 2006, surgeons of the Organ Transplant Center at Xiangya Hospital of Zhongnan University completed seventeen transplant surgeries in one day, which included seven kidney transplants for patients with terminal uremia. On the same day, they also finished two liver transplants and eight cornea transplants. [68]

Gongyi is a county-level city under Zhengzhou City in Henan Province. As many as eight kidney transplants can be performed in a single day at Gongyi City Kidney Transplant Center. [7]

According to information published on January 28, 2005 from the website for the Liver Transplant Center of the No.1 Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, academician Zheng Shusen of the center performed five liver transplants in the same day. He performed eleven liver transplant surgeries within one week. [69]

1.4.2 Performed batch organ transplant surgeries at the same time

Surgeons at the OOTC are capable of performing nine liver transplants and eight kidney transplant surgeries simultaneously. [70]

On April 6, 2005, under the direct supervision of Director Shen Zhongyang, the Organ Transplant Center of Armed Police General Hospital performed five liver transplants for patients with ages ranging from 12 to 62, including one Korean woman and a twelve-year old child who suffered from Wilson's illness. [71]

According to Dr. Yan Lu’nan from the West China Clinical Medical College at Sichuan University (also known as West China Hospital), three to five liver transplants can be performed in one day in the hospital. Once the surgeons there completed seven liver transplants in a single day, which set the record in China. [72]

In the evening of February 10, 2004, four liver transplant surgeries were completed in the No.3 Adjunct Hospital of Zhongshan University in Guangzhou. The hospital’s president Chen Guihua did the surgeries. [60]

On June 24, 2005, liver transplants were performed on three patients in No.1 Hospital of Kunming Medical University. [73]

On January 17, 2006, surgeons of Fuzhou General Hospital were successful in performing three liver transplant surgeries simultaneously, which was the first time for the hospital. [74]

1.4.3 Perform batch liver transplants many times

At 9 p.m. of September 29, 2004, five liver transplant surgeries were started, in succession, at the Southwest Hospital. Guo Jiwei, head of Medical Education Division, led the leaders of the Medical Science Department to the surgery rooms and the Liver and Gallbladder Section of the hospital to supervise and coordinate this huge undertaking. [75]

On January 5, 2004, Southwest Liver and Gallbladder Surgery Hospital of the No.3 Military Medical University successfully performed liver transplants for two terminally-ill liver patients. [76]

1.4.4 Many hospitals take organ transplant medical science their leading programs

The secret that Xiangya Third Hospital of Central South University has used to make the rapid growth of the hospital is to construct the transplant medical science as the trump of the hospital’s development, and to make it the leading program of the hospital.

When interviewed by a Central South University News reporter, Huang Zufa, President of Xiangya Third Hospital, revealed how the hospital has become renowned in a short period of five years, “In 2001, my hospital invested about 100 million yuan to establish the transplant research center, and bought many world-class medical equipment. In 2002, we recruited eight highly-accomplished organ transplant experts, led by professor Ye Qifa...” “So far, we have performed many surgeries, including organ transplants of heart, liver, kidney, pancreas islet cells, blood stem cells, small intestine, and others."

“Our hospital once simultaneously carried out two liver and five kidney transplants. We are now capable of performing six to seven transplant surgeries at the same time and can perform as many as 200 surgeries in one year.” [77] “The organ donor network has also been gradually expanded to all regions of China, and we have established a relationship with over ten transplant centers in China in sharing the resources of organs.” [78]

There are so many hospitals where multiple tens of liver or kidney transplant surgeries can be performed in one day or at the same time. In one day, it is essentially impossible to find so many organs whose blood and tissue type match those of the organ patients. The only possible explanation is that there have existed organ donor banks in many regions, where there are large numbers of live organ donors whose blood types and the Human Leukocyte histocompatibility Antigen (HLA) have been pre-tested.

2. China has become the world center of organ transplants

By 2001, there had been 106 hospitals in China registered as organ transplant institutions, [3] while by 2004 there had been about 360 hospitals in Mainland China that were capable of carrying out kidney, liver, heart and other large organ transplant surgeries. [4] At present, there have been more than 500 hospitals in China that offering liver transplant surgeries and as many as 368 hospitals offering kidney transplant surgeries. [2]

By contrast, in the United States, there are no more than 100 hospitals that have liver transplant capabilities, and no more than 200 hospitals that are qualified for performing kidney transplant surgeries. [79]

It takes only one and a half hours to fly from Korea to China's largest organ transplant center - Tianjin First Central Hospital. In 2005, over 360 patients from Korea received organ transplant surgeries at this hospital, amounting to 40% of all organ transplant surgeries performed in this hospital. [42]

Jin Yundong (pronunciation), a Korean agent for the Beijing Organ Transplant Center, revealed, “Every month, there are as many as 70-80 Korean patients receiving organ transplant surgeries in large Chinese hospitals in Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai (the Hospital of Zhongshan Medical Science University), Hangzhou, and Hospital of West China Medical University. If those who went to medium or small hospitals for organs transplants are included, there are as many as 1000 Korean patients who go to China for organ transplant surgeries every year.” [80]

According to a report from a Japanese media, from 2004 to 2005, there were 180 Japanese patients who had gone to China for liver or kidney transplant surgeries. [81]

But according to another report, since 2004, only one agent has referred more than 100 Japanese patients to hospitals in China for organ transplant surgeries, and the numbers continues to rise. [82]

According to a report from The United Daily News in Taiwan, one medical specialist of liver, who was unwilling to reveal his name, indicated that in the recent several years, there have been many U.S. patients going to China for kidney or liver transplant surgeries. Furthermore, many severely ill patients in Taiwan also went to China for organ transplants; this has already become a “tacit agreement” among the patients. They introduce each other through friends and family members and they have certain ways of communications. As for the details and the source of the organs, they remained silent and even did not want to talk about it. [83]

Due to the imbalance of organ supply and demand in many foreign countries, many patients from these countries seek opportunities to go to other countries for transplants. Patients from around the world have traveled to China to receive organ transplants and China has become the new world center for organ transplant surgeries.

Tianjin First Central Hospital’s Transplant Surgery Department is “presently the largest organ transplant center in the world.” Among the 507 liver transplant surgeries carried out there in 2004, more than 53% were for patients from other countries. [84]

In recent years, almost every province and city in China has liver transplant hospitals; however, the transplant surgeries carried out there have resulted in many post-surgical complications and problems. In an international liver illness symposium held in Jiangsu Province, the following data were presented, “Out of 90 patients who had received liver transplant surgeries at a hospital in Beijing, 18 of them died within three months after the surgeries, and 37% of the recipients had survived more than three months after the surgeries but suffered from complications in biliary tracts. It has been known that in the present, the majority of liver transplant surgeries carried out in the medium or small hospitals were actually performed by the doctors from large hospitals; after these hospitals finished their propaganda works via these liver transplant surgeries, they neither pay attention to nor have the ability to consider the post-surgical situations of the patients.” [85]

From early 2004 to February 2006, there were at least seven Japanese patients who had died after organ transplant surgeries in Shanghai, Shenyang, and Changsha. [81]

While Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare were investigating the deaths of these seven Japanese patients, a spokesperson from the National Kidney Foundation of the Untied States quoted a report and pointed out that several Malaysia patients who had gone to China to receive organ transplants died either in China or in Malaya after they went back to their own country because of post-surgical complications. [86]

According to The Chosun Ilbo, in 2004, the academic community of Korean organ transplantation conducted a study on 236 patients who had gone to China to receive organ transplant surgeries. The study showed that among these patients, the probabilities of experiencing organ rejections and other post-surgical complications were higher than among the patients who had received organ transplants in Korea. The rate of post-surgeries complications such as bile duct stricture was as high as 32%, whereas this rate was only about 3% for the patients who had received organ transplants in Korea. [87]

One medical professional pointed out that it may be true that organ transplant surgeries cost less in China and that many patients have indeed successfully received the kidney or liver transplant surgeries; however, many of these patients contracted hepatitis C during the blood transfusions. As a result, many patients started to bring their own disposable needles when they go to China to receive treatments. This medical professional indicated that some doctors in the United States, Taiwan and other countries have refused to provide post-surgical cares for the patients who had received organ transplants in other countries, primarily because they suspect whether the organs were procured legally or humanely. [83]

3. Abnormal Chinese-style Reverse Matching Test

 

3.1 Average waiting time for transplant surgeries

In the U.S., the annual number of organ transplant surgeries has stayed between 12,000 and 13,000. [88]

On March 29, 2006, the Metro newspaper published an article entitled “An Era of On-Line Organ Donations," in which the author said that because of lack of kidney donors, the waiting time for a kidney transplant in the U.S. is 3 to 7 years.

It takes many years too for a patient to find a proper source of liver for transplant. The U.S. is the country where the organ transplant surgeries were started the earliest in the world and the people there also have the will of donating their organs. However, when the organ transplant situations in the U.S. and in China are compared, the waiting times for kidney and liver are so short in China that it is inconceivable.

The liver transplant application form from the organ transplant department of Shanghai Changzheng Hospital clearly indicates that the average waiting time for a patient to get liver transplant is normally one week. [89]

The website of the Oriental Organ Transplant Center in Tianjin states that from January 2005 to the present, the center has completed 647 orthotopic liver transplants; 12 liver transplants were finished in this week, and the patients’ average waiting time for livers is two weeks. [90]


The China International Transplantation Network Assistance Center (CITNAC), which locates in the Transplant Research Institute of the First Hospital of China Medical University, is a transplant assistance center that specifically targets foreign patients. This center has established cooperative relationships with Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, and other well-known hospitals. The doctors of this center have succeeded in carrying out such highly complex surgeries as heart transplants, lung transplants, and joint heart-lung transplant surgeries. [91]

The description about the organ donors on its website also indicates that the waiting time for liver and kidney transplants are incredibly short in China.

The notice from the China International Transplantation Network Assistance Center (CITNAC) [92]:

Regarding the organ donors:

If you send your personal health information to this center by e-mail or fax and agree to certain physical examinations in Shenyang, so a hospital in China can find a suitable donor. Usually it may take only one month to receive a liver transplant. The maximum waiting period is two months. As for kidney transplants, it may take one week to find a suitable donor with matching HLA, and the maximum waiting period is no more than one month. Although the organ donors are determined after going through rigorous screening, if after the chosen donor’ organ is removed and then found to be abnormal, such as, a fat liver, the transplant surgery will be terminated even before the patient’s body are given surgical cut. If this happens, the center will give the patient a preferential treatment by finding another donor for him or her and will perform the surgery again within one week.

The Korean patients also found that it was not very hard for them to wait for organ transplants in Tianjin. After they established the relationship with the hospital, they would send their medical records and examination reports, from Korea, to the Tianjin First Central Hospital. They would then wait for the hospital’s determination if they were suitable for the organ transplants. If they were, they would receive notifications from the hospital; then they would simply bring their passports and immediately go to the hospital.

Prior to the transplant surgeries, the doctors of the hospital will check the degree of histocompatibility between the patient’s and the donor’s Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA). After the patients receive some routine medical evaluations, they will then start to wait for the finding of the suitable organ donors.

In the past, the waiting time was usually about one week. However, nowadays, because more and more patients are on the waiting list, the waiting time has become longer and longer, with the longest being over three months. [84]

3.2 “Reverse Matching Test,” in which the organ donors wait for the coming of the patients, reveals the existence of huge live organ banks

On the CITNA website in 2004, in the Online Q&A (Questions and Answers) section, [93] it was repeatedly stressed that a "live kidney transplant" is performed at the transplant center.

Q: Is there a possibility if being infected with other diseases such as HIV or hepatitis after the kidney transplant?
A: It is not necessary to worry about that. The biggest problem with a kidney transplantation is the tissue match. Before the living kidney transplantation, we will examine the donor’s kidney function and leukocyte in order to assure the safety of the kidney. So it is more safe and reliable here than in Japan, where the organ is not from a living donor.

Q: After accepting the organ transplant overseas, can the patient receive post-operative treatment in his native hospital?
A: This question has, more or less, made people get worried. However, the issue is not whether it is safe to be treated in one's homeland after the operation, but whether there is a hospital center that has experienced staff to treat a patient after the organ transplant. In the hospitals where the patients are receiving dialysis, the doctors there may not have the knowledge about living kidney transplants; this is something that cannot be solved in Japan, because there are almost no living organ transplants in Japan. However, if the area where you live has hospitals that offer transplant surgeries, or if you may be just a little far from the hospitals, as long as you can go to such hospitals, you will certainly receive satisfactory post-surgical treatment. Of course, the expenses will be covered by the patient’s medical insurance.
Q: Even if the transplant is successful, the recipient of the kidney will live for no more than two to three years. Is this correct?
A: We had been asked such questions many times. Please, be assured that this time limit refers to kidney transplants where the organ came from a brain-dead person. This transplant was performed in Japan. The kidney transplant performed in China come from a live donor. The result is completely different from what you heard at Japanese hospitals or dialysis centers. Since China began live organ transplants twenty years ago, doctors here have performed 5,000 kidney transplants.

At present, there are two types of homologous kidney transplants, which are living kidney transplants and cadaver kidney transplants. Living kidney transplants refers to the situation that the kidney comes from a living human being. [94]

CITNAC, which is in Shenyang City, emphasizes, “The live kidney transplant in China is totally different from the cadaver kidney transplant, as you may have heard, in the hospitals and dialysis centers in Japan.” [93] Since the recipients are foreigners and the donors are Chinese, the organs for "live kidney transplants" that the CITNAC refers to are clearly not donated by relatives. In China, so far, there are only nine cases in total, where the organs were from persons with brain deaths. [95] So where are the thousands of the organs for live kidney transplants in the advertisement from?

According to the analysis of Pang Yubin, a medical doctor, the matching process for a transplant is completely different in China compared to that of other countries. China uses a “reverse matching” system. In other countries, they use the forward matching system, which means the patient waits for the organ. Sometimes, it will take the patient several years to find a matching donor. In China, the reverse matching system is used, meaning that the organ is waiting for the patient. It is very clearly indicated on many Chinese hospital websites that they can find a matching donor within a week. [96]

A typical example in which an organ is already available for use on the recipient is the story of Han Xiuwu, a surgeon at the Organ Transplant Department of Beijing Haidian Hospital. The doctor completed three kidney transplants within 48 hours. Because of the patient's violent rejection of the first transplanted kidney, the first kidney transplant failed. After this, Han immediately brought back with him a new, matching kidney from Kunming City (of Yunan Province) (where he had performed another kidney transplant). The next day, he carried out the second kidney transplant surgery for the patient whose first kidney transplant surgery had failed.

On May 17, 2006, the article "Receiving a Kidney Transplant Twice Within 48 hours: 220,000 Yuan Didn’t Save a Life" was published in the No. 1562 issue of Huaxia Times, which is under the Chinese Ministry of Trade. [97] The article reported that Xue Yanlin, from Fuyang, Anhui Province, who suffered from uremia, was hospitalized in the Organ Transplant Center of Beijing Haidian Hospital on December 19, 2004. Nine days later, in the afternoon of December 28, the center received a kidney from another area. It was until about 11:00 p.m. in that evening when Han Xiuwu, the surgeon who would perform the surgery, came back from Chifeng City of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to perform the kidney transplant. Next morning the surgery was found to have failed. On that same day, Han was scheduled to go to Kunming City to perform surgery. He said that there would be more kidneys available there, and he could bring back another one on December 30. Around 11:00 p.m. in the evening of December 30, Han returned to the hospital from Kunming with another kidney. At 12:00 a.m., he performed the second kidney transplant for Xue Yanlin. The surgery failed again. In both surgeries, the failures were all due to violent kidney rejection. On January 30, 2005, thirty days after the surgery, Xue died of the complications. During the second transplant surgery, the patient’s PRA was 72.5%, so Han carried out the surgery against common medical practices. [98] (Comment: Without a live organ bank that could supply the doctors with matching organs, how could Dr. Han Xiuwu be so sure that he was able to bring back another suitable kidney for the patient the next day after failure of the first surgery due to the recipient's system rejecting the new organ, so he could perform the second surgery?)

In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times, Professor Feng Lili, from the Medical Department’s Kidney Program at Baylor Medical College in the U.S. said, “It is difficult to imagine that it only takes one week in China to find a matching kidney. Unless a huge group of donors are waiting there, such a matching would be absolutely impossible, because the matching has to precede the initial selection. Once a matching organ is identified, more specific cross-matching tests are to be done between the donor and the recipient.” [99]

3.3 Where has the large group of organ donors used in the Reverse Matching come from?

The Liver Transplant Center of the Armed Police General Hospital was established in May 2003. Since then, in a period of as short as two years, the doctors there had completed 506 orthotopic liver transplants and had thus set the record of finishing most numbers of transplants in one year in the nation and among the military hospitals in China. The hospital's advertisement on its website states, “It has a very strong expert team and adequate supply of organs. The surgeries, under the supervision of Professor Shen Zhongyang, are done by transplant experts who have completed over one thousand transplants…” [100]

In different regions of Mainland China, the annual totals of organ transplants have increases rapidly. Many transplant surgeries are simultaneously done in the same day. In such short times, the doctors can find the matching organs for several and even multiple tens of the patients, and then carry out “live kidney transplants.” Furthermore, if the matching organs are found to have problems, the hospitals can find the replacing organs within one week. We cannot help but asking where all the organ donors have come from?

3.3.1 Chinese Regime contradicts itself on the sources of the organs for transplantation

The direct causes of this situation are the Chinese medical community’s not being able to explain the sources of organs, the information non-transparency, and its dodging the ethical issues related to organ donations. This may have explained why the speech of Huang Jiefu, China’s Vice Minister of Health, during the conference of the World Liver Transplant Congress in July 2005, have caused such a big stir – the international academic community of organ transplants has greatly endorsed his speech.

At that meeting, Huang Jiefu, on behalf of the Chinese government, for the first time, officially admitted that the majority of organs used for transplantation in China have come from the executed prisoners on death-roll. [101]

However, in less than one year, the Chinese Ministry of Health spokesperson Mao Qun-an overturned the above statement and claimed that the organs for transplants had mainly come from people’s donations, and few of them have come from the executed prisoners. [102]

On July 6, 2006, Canadian human right lawyer David Matas and former Canadian MP and Secretary of State (Asia Pacific) David Kilgour pointed out, in their “Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China,” that during the six-year period from 2000 to 2005, the sources of 41,500 organs used in transplantation cannot be explained, [103] which has drawn world-wide attention. After keeping silent for three months, the Communist regime declared, at a human organ transplant conference held in Guangzhou on November 14, 2006, through its vice Minister of Health, that organs used in transplant surgeries in China “were mainly from executed prisoners, and very few from the persons died in traffic accidents.” This statement was immediately spread to the whole world, on November 18, through the regime’s mouthpiece China Daily (the English version); [104] the regime’s intention was to cover up its even more horrible crime of harvesting human organs from living persons.

3.3.2 Chinese Regime reports that less than 2% of the organs for transplants have come from the donations of the patients’ family members or relatives

Live organ donation refers to the situation that a healthy adult donates one kidney or a part of the liver to his or her relative within three generations or to his or her spouse. First of all, live organ donation must absolutely be voluntary, and can only proceed under the conditions that the donor has passed the medical examinations and gone through the notarization procedure. [105]

International regulations on living donor liver transplant (LDLT) involve the following principles: [106]
The prime principle is about the safety and harmlessness of the donor;
Second, the donation is done voluntarily;
Third, before the surgery, the donor is subjected psychological evaluation for determination if the donor has voluntarily signed his or her agreement under no pressures.

Organ donations by living family members or relatives are extremely low in China. This is because Chinese people are influenced by the traditional thinking that “one should keep the body whole even after death,” which causes very few people to be willing to donate their organs.

Since the first kidney transplant in 1972 in China, where the organ was donated by a family member of the recipient, according to incomplete statistics by the end of 2000, there had been only 181 surgeries of such a type of kidney transplants, which were performed in 37 hospitals nationwide. [107] (During the same period, the cumulative total of kidney transplants has reached 34,832, and organ donations by family members or relatives are only 0.5%.)

Currently, organ donations by living family members or relatives in China are only 1.1%, while the else, that is, about 98% of the organs are controlled outside the system of the Chinese Ministry of Health. [108]

3.3.3 Chinese official news reported only nine incidents where the organs were from the voluntary donations by individuals of brain deaths

The main disadvantage of using organs from cadavers, which no longer have heartbeats, is the span of an absence of blood circulation. After experiencing long-term blood supply shortages, the organs may already see severe damages, so the probability of having successful surgeries is relative low. By contrast, after a person is confirmed to be dead in terms of brain function, the doctors can artificially sustain the breathing and blood circulation, and then remove the organs under this condition; with such organs, which have relative good vitality and normal physiological function, the outcomes of the transplant surgeries are good. [109]

Of all the countries that have organ transplants, only China has no laws governing the situation that the individuals have no brain faculties. [110] So in China, according to the Chinese laws, all activities of harvesting organs from brain-death individuals is illegal.

On July 27, 2000, the first organ transplant surgery where the organ was from a brain-death person was completed in Shanghai Changzheng Hospital. [111]

At 3:00 p.m. of May 25, 2003, the second brain death was confirmed in Wuhan Xiehe Hospital by Professor Chen Zhonghua, an authoritative expert of brain death in China, and a faculty member of the Organ Transplant Institute of Wuhan Tongji Hospital. [112]

Prior to that, a quite numbers of kidney transplants had already been completed in both Shanghai Changzhen Hospital and Wuhan Tongji Hospital.

On March 5, 2006, in his office in Wuhan City, Professor Chen, for the first time, revealed to a reporter, that since July 2000, the total of organ donations by brain-death individuals in China was only nine. [95]

“Brain deaths” are determined through strict protocols, and the requirements on the doctors who can make such determinations are quite high. While determining “brain deaths,” at least two medical doctors, who are qualified to make such determinations, should be involved. Such doctors are usually from the departments of neurology or neurosurgery, anesthesia, intensive care units, and they must have gone through special professional training, and mastered the brainstem function tests. [113] The doctors who determine “brain deaths” should not be involved in organ transplant. These are all the international standards that the doctors must abide. [114]

Professor Li Shunwei from Beijing Xiehe Hospital led the effort in coming up with the “Standards for Declaring Someone Brain Dead (Draft)." He emphasized that the organ transplant doctors should not participate in the brain death diagnosis. [111]

Chen Zhonghua is head of the Organ Transplant Institute at the Wuhan Tongji Hospital. In the meantime, he is also the person in charge of the “Brain-death” Cooperation Team at the Wuhan Tongji Hospital, the only brain-death research institute in China. [115] Apparently, he has a conflicting of interest.

About Chen Zhonghua:
Zhonghua Klaus Chen is head of the Organ Transplant Institute at the Central China University of Science and Technology’s Tongji Medical College. He had graduated from Tongji Medical College in 1979 and obtained an Alexander Hongbao scholarship, to pursue advanced study at the University of Cologne in Germany in 1987. Between 1989 and 2002, he worked as clinician at the Department of Surgery at Great Britain's Cambridge University. He earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1996. He became British citizen in 1997. China Ministry of Education recruited him in 2000 to serve as Changjiang Scholar Endowment Professor. [116] During his first year after he went back in China, he established the “Brain-Death Cooperation Team.” [95] He was elected as the deputy director of the Organ Transplant Division of the Chinese Medical Association in 2001. [114]

3.3.4 Chinese official news reported that there is no market for individual organ sales, but China has ample organ supplies

On December 24, 2004, it was reported in an article of China Business News, a newspaper by the Federation of the Returned Overseas Chinese in Liaoning Province, [117] that advertisements of human organ sales were everywhere in the hospitals, and that the doctors claimed that there was a sufficient supply of kidney in Shenyang, and there was virtually no market for organ sales by individuals. “Because at the present, the kidney supply in Shenyang is sufficient, those kidney ads almost have no market.” These were the words of Associate Professor Wu Gang of the Organ Transplant Department in the No.1 Hospital of China Medical University. [118]

3.3.5 Organs from the executed death-row prisoners

On October 9, 1984, “Interim Regulation Regarding the Use of Cadaver organs from Executed Prisoners” was announced. This was a joint stipulation of the Supreme Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Civil Affairs, and other government branches. It states that the following types of cadaver organs from the executed prisoners are permitted for use: (1) The cadavers of those whose family members have refused to claim the bodies or that no ones claim; (2) those cadavers from the executed prisoners who had voluntarily donated their bodies to medical institutions; (3) the cadavers of those whose family members have agreed to organ harvesting.

In as early as 1996, at a conference organized by the Organ Transplant Association in Montreal, medical specialists and scholars noted that “if the medical community was involved in the use of organs from death row inmates, it would lead to the legalization of killing.”

On July 4, 2005, in an interview with Phoenix Weekly (of Phoenix Television), a Chinese journal, Mr. Qu Xinjiu, a professor of criminal law at the China University of Political Science and Law, said that “An insurmountable conflict exists between the status of a death-row convict and his free decision. For a death-row inmate who is in a vulnerable position, even though he expresses his willingness to donate his organs, that expression is not necessarily his true will… The convict’s legal status also determines that it cannot be determined whether the donation is voluntarily and from the convict’s true wish.”

Professor Qu also pointed out that there is a hidden danger of allowing the prisoners to donate their organs. That is, doing this way will possibly cause the court to loosen up the criminal policy of “strictly controlling the use of death sentence” so as to increase the base number of death-row prisoners, which will arbitrarily increases the number of executed prisoners who are “willing to donate their organs.” [119]

David Matas, Esq. and Hon. David Kilgour, Esq. pointed out in their report of “Bloody Harvest” (“Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China,” 31 January 2007, http://organharvestinvestigation.net/report0701/report20070131.htm), “According to tabulations constructed from the Amnesty International reports of publicly available information in China, the average number of prisoners sentenced to death and then executed between 1995 and 1999 was 1680 per year. The average between 2000 and 2005 was 1616 per year. The numbers have bounced around from year to year, but the overall average number for the periods before and after Falun Gong persecution began is the same. Execution of prisoners sentenced to death can not explain the increase of organ transplants in China since the persecution of Falun Gong began.” [103]

The medical practice and theoretical research on liver transplants in mainland China have not been published in any of the top international medical journals. One most important reason for this may be that these researchers cannot declare who the organ donors actually are.

4. Summary

Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, the yearly numbers of transplant surgeries in hospitals all over China have been increasing rapidly. In particular, the widespread practice of carrying out many kidney and liver transplants at the same time, the abnormal "reverse-matching," as well as the extremely short waiting time in organ supply have all suggested the existence of a huge organ bank of living humans in Mainland China.

For a live transplant surgery to be carried out, the organ has to be removed from a living person who can still breathe and has heartbeat. Because the numerous organ transplant institutions in China have guaranteed the availability of proper organs for transplant patients in short times (from one or two weeks to several months), because very few family members in China have donated their live organs (which only accounts for 0.5%) and there are only nine cases where the organs were from brain-death individuals, and because the annual organ transplant surgeries cannot be explained by the published or actual numbers of the executed death-row prisoners, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the organs can only be from living people. As many as 10, 000 surgeries of kidney, liver, and other organ transplants are carried out each year; this requires the existence of a large group of organ donors. Because for the organs from non-family members, the chance of getting the tissue match is about 6.5%, [120] the several thousand and even ten thousand organ transplant surgeries each year suggest that the tissue-matching organs have been harvested from over one hundred thousand or even hundreds of thousands living people, who are not family members of the patients.

So, if organs used in such a huge number of transplantations do not come from death-row prisoners, nor from donations by the patient’s family members, or from brain-death individuals, nor from organ sales by individuals, the Communist regime certainly has an obligation to tell the international community the origins of such huge numbers of organs and their donors.
Famous human rights lawyer David Matas, and former Canadian MP and Secretry of State for Asis/Pacific, David Kilgour, through their large collections of detailed and factual evidences and their cohesive and precise reasoning, have reached a definitive conclusion regarding the enormous number of organs required by the large number of organ transplantations in China and the existence of a group of living organ donors, that is, the allegation that the Communist regime is harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners is true, “…there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners.” [121] On July 25, 2007, WOIPFG's “Investigation Report on Clandestine Operations of Organ Harvesting from Live Falun Gong Practitioners in China” further confirmed the allegation. [122]

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[121] “Bloody Harvest Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China,” Author: David Matas, Esq, Hon. David Kilgour, Esq, Organ Harvest Investigation Net, January 31, 2007 (Back)

[122] “Investigation Report on Clandestine Surgeries of Organ Harvesting from Live Falun Gong Practitioners in China,” WOIPFG website, July 25, 2007(Back)