Organ transplants: Go to China or lose daughters

Knesset's Heath Committee discusses China organ transplants. Opposers claim organs obtained by killing prisoners

Meital Yasur-Beit Or|Published: 11.27.06 , 19:06

A father of two girls in need of organ transplants pleaded with the Knesset's Health Committee Monday: "I have two options – to collect donations to go to China, or to lose my daughters, this situation could happen to anyone in the country, don’t cancel the China option at the expense of my daughters".

"My 13 and 17 year old daughters are waiting for transplants in Israel. I wish they would get them here. We believe in the medical system here, but the option of a transplant in China could save their lives", says Ron Wahnun, the girls' father.

The Wahnun family suffers of a genetic disease, his nephew died while awaiting a transplant and his wife's life was saved upon recently receiving a transplant.

Doctors and human rights activists who were present at the hearing testified that the Chinese use organs of prisoners on death row. Because of the lack of donors in Israel, people in need of a transplant have flown abroad and been saved.

Dr Yaakov Lavi, head of the Heart Transplant Unit at the Sheba Medical Center, described how prisoners are "executed by order, under pretext of a sedative, the doctor gives them a shot to dilute their blood, this is important for cropping the organ for transplant. A special ambulance without license plates waits the execution and collects the body for cropping organs."

Dr Lavi claimed that if the health organizations spent one percent of the money they spent on funding the transplants on a campaign to encourage donating organs in Israel, the problem could be solved.

In Israel, only 7 percent of the population hold donors cards, as opposed to a record 40 percent in other countries. Furthermore, only 50 percent of families of deceased agree to donate their loved ones organs, compared to 80 percent in other developed countries.

In light of the situation in China, the Ministry of Health stated that the health clinics are responsible for making sure that the organs come from a legal source before funding the transplants.

A clear conscience

Clallit Heath Services representative Freddy Rosenfeld said, "We fund transplants in China upon receiving an official document from the hospitals administration stating that the source of the donation is following accidental death of disease. Without this document we don’t pay. This gives us a clear conscience. If the Ministry of Heath decided not to send patients to China, we won't."

Leumit and Meuhedet HMOs heal clinic's representatives also claim they oppose transplants in China, but in two cases a patient took them to court and forced them to fund the transplants.

The head of the medical department in the Rabbinate, Rabbi Zvi Shafran, is in favor of the transplants: "If the people are put executed anyway, I see no wrong in taking their organs for transplants, if it is to save a life."

Abraham Abramson, who has undergone a transplant in China, said that 14 people were saved thanks to transplants in China. He himself was number 127 on the waiting list in Israel, in five years half of the patients had died.

Another transplantee, Moti Friedman, said: "I cant fix the law in China, I knew that people were executed there, but if I didn’t show up, the man would have been executed anyway."

MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz), one of the discussions initiators, said that the transplantees' stories were heartbreaking, but that "we cannot turn body parts into merchandise for sale."

Health Committee Chairman MK Moshe Sharoni (Pensioner's party) closed the meeting by saying that the committee is against organ trade and will push talks regarding legislating a law in the matter of organ transplants in Israel.

He called upon the Ministry of Health to cooperate with transplant centers that work legally and ethically, and called upon the health clinics to provide publicity to encourage donating organs.