ms: this is not a new practice. The Chinese have been doing this since organ transplants were determined to be a viable means to extend the lives of people who would not normally survive illness or accident.
Yes, the Brits take offense as they are liberal enough to feel that everyone should have some say in the matter but it should be obvious the Chinese don't feel the same way, thankfully. And let's not forget that the American organ transplant industry - yep, it's an industry alright with notable profitmaking by the hospitals performing the transplants - was the first to rail against this practice (because, I feel, they didn't have any control over who would get the organs, the costs of the procedures or, most likely, because there would be more organs available).
But you have to understand that here in the US, where organs should be widely available, they aren't for a number of reasons. First of all, some transplants have a very high failure rate, most notably organs from donors of African American ancestry fail at a high rate when transplanted to whites and from what I understand, vice versa. In addition there are a number of cultural prohibitions with certain religions and minority groups - the Jewish do not allow their organs to be harvested and transplanted, same with the American Indian and many middle eastern groups. So basically that leaves white Catholics and Protestants transplanting to their own, the rest not even considering it and transplantable organs in short supply. The shortage is horrendous with many, many people dying while suffering (and please note that I mean 'suffering') on a waiting list. This happened to my late wife.
Six years ago there was an article in the local paper about the Chinese transplant program with a response by the head of the organ transplant program at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in NYC (which was ranked 29 of 30 in a study on American transplant facilities). I responded to that article but my response was never printed because the hospital was looking out for its own financial interests and had little or no concern for those in need of transplant, and I said so.
Just remember that in America, supply is based on demand and if the supply is short the demand is always high, especially in life an death situations, and that is just fine for hospitals who have staff that are still famous for saying - 'the procedure was a success but the patient failed', and you still owe us $250,000 for the transplant procedure.
Actually, I feel the best thing that could possibly happen for the American transplant needy is to have cheap airfare and hospitalization in China for transplants. Competition always seems to make the supply more available and drive down the monopolized costs of obtaining what is in demand. It would also probably do a world of good for relations between our two countries. JMHO. Mikey.
