According to one of Australia's top transplant surgeons this is a practice that is well-known within the medical community, yet the Chinese Government has completely rejected the report.Report alleges Chinese Govt harvesting body organs of political prisoners
PM - Monday, 10 July , 2006 18:26:00
Reporter: Michael Edwards
MARK COLVIN: Australia has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the developed world. The people who had kidney transplants in New South Wales last year, for example, had waited an average of eight years for a suitable organ.
That's the kind of pressure that's created the new phenomenon of "transplant tourism", with patients going to countries like India and China for their operations.
Last year an Australian report highlighted the rate of HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis in patients who'd had such operations overseas.
Now a report from Canada says most of the organs in China are not donated at all. They're taken from political prisoners who die after the organs are literally harvested from them.
Transplant doctors in Australia are alarmed and are calling for more Government controls on patients travelling to China.
Michael Edwards has this report.
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What are your thoughts about this particular issue and 'transplant tourism' in general?
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