China Investigates Illegal Transplants for Tourists

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

HONG KONG -- China said Tuesday it was investigating whether 17 Japanese tourists had received illegal kidney and liver transplants in China.

“China strongly opposes organ transplant tourism,” the Ministry of Health said Tuesday in a statement on its Web site, adding that the hospitals and medical personnel “who carried out the organ transplants against the rules will be severely dealt with according to the law.”

China has banned all transplants for foreigners — so-called “organ tourists” — because an estimated 1.5 million Chinese are on waiting lists for transplants. The ban was issued May 1, 2007.

It was not immediately clear whether news of the scandal would inflame anti-Japanese sentiment in China. Relations between the two countries can be fragile, with old hurts still sensitive.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/world/asia/18organs.html?ref=world

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Something tells me the miscreants have a good chance of becoming organ-donors themselves...

on edit: spellin'