Why the fuss?

This headline on BBC caught my eye today: China 'selling prisoners' organs'

You can go read the article, but the headline pretty much covers it. China has been acused of selling thousends of executed prisoners organs for transplant abroad, by a British surgeon.

I don't really get why this is considered such a terrible thing; especially in the UK, which regularly debates the merits of making organ donation compulsory, with an "opt-out" card, rather than an "opt-in" card as we currently have.

China is a communist country - therefore it is illegal to follow any of the God religions. I know that doesn't necessarily cut much ice, but China's home-grown religion does not have any hang-ups about the sacrosactity of the body once death has come - or even about death really. As far as I am aware, your ancestors spirits hang around their family whatever the method, place or age of death. In a communist country, your body belongs to the gov't first while you are alive - let alone while you are dead.

In a communist country, all medical care is free, and everyone is entitled to the same care as everyone else. Therefore if one person recieves a transplant, thoretically every person who needs one is entitled to one. Where are all those organs going to come from? You need people who have died before their natural time. In Western societies, we get a lot (but nowhere near enough) from road deths. Except for Beijing & Hong Kong, China doesn't get that many road deaths. They do execute a lot of "criminals" (even more than the USA, although the population numbers are quite different too.....). It seems a sensible source of organs to me.

I am completely for the compulsory harvesting of organs, providing people who feel strongly can opt out. The only problem that i see with China's policy is that they didn't offer that option to the prisoners as they kept the policy secret (they still deny it BTW). Oh, and that i'm against the death penalty:-)

China has promised to stop selling organs altogether by july.