INSIDERINSIDER
A stock image of a hand putting a key in a jail cell door, viewed from below.
Stock image. Japanese death row inmates are suing against same-day executions.Charles O'Rear/Getty Images
  • More than 70 inmates were killed by removing their organs in China, which carries out the most executions in the world.

  • The inmates were not brain dead before their organs were removed.

  • The country no longer harvests organs from inmates.

According to a study published in the Am erican Journal of Transplantation, at least 71 death row inmates in China had their vital organs removed to be used for transplants before they were officially declared dead.

Matthew P. Robertson, an author of the study, said in a statement that the method of execution was heart removal.

According to the study, Chinese surgeons have broken a crucial transplant donor rule for decades.

The authors of the study reviewed 2,838 cases and found that 343 medical workers or researchers participated in the executions of inmates.

Organ removal should not be the cause of death for transplant donors according to the World Medical Association.

The study states that the dead donor rule is fundamental to transplant ethics.

The cases showed that medics didn't check inmates for brain dead and couldn't bring them back. The study authors were able to determine this by manually reviewing 310 papers.

If the reports we examine are accurate, they show that heart and lung procurement by the surgeon was the cause of the prisoner's death, thus implicating the surgeon in the execution.

Lavee said in a statement to Newsweek that this was one of the strongest pieces of evidence of failure to adhere to the dead donor rule.

There were other problematic features of the clinical case reports. Several papers referred to acute brain death when the donors did not have IV lines established until moments before surgery. Lavee said that the evidence suggests that the donors organs were procured before they could have been diagnosed as brain dead.

There was no voluntary process for organ donation in China, and death row inmates accounted for all transplants.

According to Dr. Frank Montgomery, Chair of Council of the WMA, they have always denounced organ harvesting from executed prisoners as unethical, and that their interventions helped China outlaw the practice in 2015.

We are waiting for a clear commitment from our Chinese member organization that this unethical practice is no longer performed in China.

The senior China researcher at Humans Right Watch is not sure if the country has stopped the practice.

The Chinese authorities have a history of dubious claims with regard to organ transplantation, they said they had taken organs from executed prisoners but insisted the prisoners had always consented, despite evidence to the contrary, Wang said in an email to Insider.

There is a lack of evidence that authorities have ended the practice of using organs of executed prisoners. There have been reported data discrepancies in the Chinese government's organ donation registry.

China is considered to be the world's leading executioner.

The death row in China is shrouded in mystery. It doesn't reveal its figures on executions, but it is thought to have killed thousands of prisoners from 2016 to 2020. 13 prisoners were killed by the US government during that time period, following a 17-year hiatus.

The findings are disturbing and the Chinese government should respond to them.

The Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America, Lavee, and the other organizations did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

The original article can be found on Insider.

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