Practice must be stopped

EDITOR—On 27 June 2001 Thomas Diflo, a New York transplant surgeon, Wang Guoqui, a Chinese doctor who had taken kidneys and skin from recently executed prisoners, and Harry Wu of the Laogai Association gave evidence to the committee on international relations of the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC. They noted that in China, organs are taken from recently executed prisoners, to be transplanted into recipients from the United States, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, and other countries. The recipients pay $17 000–40 000 each. It was not known whether the executed prisoners had given their consent.

In China prisoners can be executed for crimes such as rape, robbery, drug dealing, and black market activities, in addition to murder. It is …