China jails doctors over illegal organ harvesting scam

Six people were awarded prison sentences of up to 28 months for their roles in illegal harvesting ring

File: Demonstrators protest against against organ harvesting in Vienna (AFP)

Six people, including four doctors, have been jailed in China for illegally harvesting organs from 11 patients in the southeastern Anhui province between 2017 and 2018.

 Of the four arrested doctors, three were the designated organ procurement officer in their respective hospitals, according to local media.  

 The group had tricked the families of the deceased into thinking they were making official organ donations. The Intermediate People’s Court in Bengpu found the accused guilty and awarded them jail terms between 10 and 28 months.  

Though the guilty were sentenced by the court in July, the details are only being revealed now by the son of one of the victims, Shi Xianglin.  

The gang, according to the South China Morning Post, targeted mostly car crash victims or patients with severe brain damage, who arrived at Huaiyuan County People’s Hospital.

The former head of the intensive care unit at the hospital, Yang Suxun, would then persuade families to donate their loved ones’ organs, and get them to sign what they believed were legitimate consent forms.  

The cadavers would then be hastily operated on in a delivery van disguised as an ambulance, where the doctors would operate and remove the organs without the presence of family or staff from the Red Cross Society of China, as required by the country's domestic law. 

The organs would then be sold to individuals or other hospitals which members of the trafficking ring contacted secretly, according to reports.

The ring was eventually busted by the police in 2018, after Mr Xianglin, who leaked the court documents, was left in a coma after a car accident that killed his mother Li and later filed a complaint.

Mr Xianglin's father and sister were tricked into signing a fake consent form. Another family member received 200,000 yuan (£23,000) as payment.

China established a voluntary donation system in 2015 as part of a series of measures to address charges that it was permitting organ trafficking, as well as harvesting organs from executed prisoners. The process is now overseen by the China Organ Donation Administrative Centre, which is affiliated to the Red Cross Society.