Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

Are you kidding me? China murders its condemned and religious prisoners—as in Falun Gong—for their organs, which are then sold for tens of thousands of dollars to rich line jumpers from the West. You can get a liver in a month in China—for the right price. It is an insidious and dirty industry—both on the buying and selling side, as in the book Larry’s Kidney and Secondhand Smokette’s “The American Vampire”—while the average Chinese citizen needing a transplant has little hope, since the usual donation system is generally non operative.

So now China wants to increase the supply of non murder-and-purchase organs by offering financial incentives for organ “donation.” From the Reuters story:

State news agency Xinhua cited Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu as telling a local newspaper that the governments should “cut back medical costs for donors during their hospital stay and their funeral expenses. Other financial compensation could also be considered, such as tax rebates, medical insurance or tuition waivers for donors’ family members,” Xinhua quoted Huang as saying. By the end of this year, Chinese people will also be given the option of registering as organ donors when they apply for driving licenses, so there will be a record of donors in case the driver dies, Huang said.”The move is to streamline the donor registration system so as to expand the pool of organs available for transplant surgeries,” he added, though nobody will be compelled to register as a potential donor.

Unless you’re a political prisoner. Then you have no choice in the matter, and your family gets none of the money.  Adding insult to injury, they might even have to pay for the bullet that was shot through your brain.

 

Dear Reader,

You have a decision to make: double or nothing.

For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.

In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.

So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?

Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
GIVE NOW

Comments are visible to subscribers only. Log in or subscribe to join the conversation.

Tags

Loading...

Filter First Thoughts Posts

Related Articles