Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
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Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#2IMO this is a good use for prisoners. If they will never be released from prison again it’s better that their organs be donated to others that need them. Even things like blood donation should be more frequent. It is the most direct way that I can see for a prisoner to give back to society.
Everyone should be an organ donor anyway.
And I really don’t understand the downvotes, people get hung up on consent as being a universal right even for criminals, but did the victims of criminals consent to having their own lives torn apart? Not to mention many of the organs being taken away are from prisoners that are already dead anyway.
Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#3Back in med school one of my professors, chinese origin, held a seminar about his research how china uses non-consenting prisoners to harvest organs. Since then i lost a bit of faith in humanity.
Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#4I think the main concern should be using death penalty in a first place.
Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#5It’s interesting how scientific journals are emerging as a source of information and ethical discussion (as they were originally) after being seen as transcripts of any scientifically relevant observation with a p-value below .05
More interesting is the tone of that article: not discussing, or looking at arguments but plainly stating that a crime is being committed at scale and condemning it the clearest way it can: publishing detailed evidence and stating a new editorial policy. The editorial policy feels strangely inadequate to the for-profit genocide that they describe but that’s the extend of the authority of the committee.
Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#6It is my understanding that US prisoners are not able to donate blood. The prison population is considered to have too high a level of drug use and other red flags to be a safe source for blood donation. So even if we set aside the entire human rights/consent issue, this seems like a dangerous medical practice for those receiving the organs.
Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#7I wonder if western media will bash communist china for this egregious behavior
From a collectivist point of view it makes total sense to overrule the individual rights not to donate organs for the "greater good"
Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#8I have a few questions on this:
- If the family of the prisoner consents, then would it be ok?
- If they are going to do it anyway.Wouldn't be better that they share the research with the world?
I understand that it has to do with human dignity and rights, etc. But I always assumed that here in the US you get your organs taken off(I'm aware of the mark on the DL) anyway, when you die in an accident, etc. Do the family of the deceased checks the body to make sure all the organs are there? Just asking, I don't know a lot about ethics related to medicine.
Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#9Personally, I think that the ethical aspects of harvesting organs from people sentenced to death are open to discussion.
If society finds it acceptable to put people to death for a number of serious crimes then it may also be felt acceptable to 'get some good out of it' by saving others' lives.
In any case, one aspect is that this may provide an incentive to sentence people to death because organs are needed...
Re: Nonconsenting prisoners are the source of many organ transplantations in China
#10For anybody who thinks that prisoners perhaps deserve to have their organs harvested (a comment to that effect popped up and then promptly disappeared here), there are at least two things worth considering:
1. As is clearly stated in the article, this includes political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, such as (but not at all limited to) Falun Gong.
2. Even if the state had the best of intentions (and it clearly doesn't), this creates a very perverse and dangerous set of incentives, wherein the state materially benefits from treating prisoners as less-than-human.