NEWS / Report: Chinese surgeons harvest organs from the living

A study that appears in the April 2022 American Journal of Transplantation contends that Chinese doctors are violating the international “dead donor rule.” That rule requires doctors to only source organs for transplantation from people who have died.

Two researchers analyzed hundreds of Chinese-language reports about organ harvesting. They found evidence in 71 of these reports "that brain death could not have properly been declared" prior to heart or lung harvest. "In these cases, the removal of the heart during organ procurement must have been the proximate cause of the donor's death," they charged.

The global medical community has determined that the dead donor rule is fundamental to transplant ethics. According to the rule, organ procurement must not commence until the donor is both dead and formally pronounced so, and procurement of organs must not cause the death of the donor.

Sources: Politico, Med Page Today, Journal of Transplantation, MSN, Today.neg, PubMed