Ghoulishly Prudent

There are some things about which human beings are instinctively repulsed. Yet there are occasions on which human beings will tamp down their aversion, deep-seated though it may be, and through desperation and another instinct entirely - that of survival - they will force themselves to engage in an act so gruesome that people speak of it in hushed tones. Victims of air crashes or boating misadventures who find themselves isolated and desperate for food have been known to do the unspeakable: to eat the flesh of dead companions to keep themselves alive.

These people are seldom found at fault, and their desperate act of survival is seen as a forgivable and even necessary decision, horribly difficult as it is to overcome revulsion and to follow through on. And then there is something quite similar, but not quite. Harvesting organs from the bodies of those so latterly quick, to utilize them in another act of desperation relating to survival. In civilized - or perhaps better said civil - societies permission is sought from still-healthy individuals to allow their body parts to be used for others, in case of death.

It has long been held that there is a kind of institutionalized, covert activity of harvesting organs from executed prisoners, in China. This grisly activity has always been denied by China, as a jaundiced and slanderous assault on its moral state. Yet the rumours persisted, and were often backed up by first-person accounts from the Chinese medical community verifying the suspicions of human-rights activists. Finally, China has admitted that fully two-thirds of all body parts used in transplants there were extracted from prisoners whom the State had executed.

All the accusations that Western countries had levelled against China for its underground organ harvest, with organs taken from political enemies, from executed prisoners, from those accused of undermining the state, from Falon Gong adherents, and even from young army conscripts appear to have been a reflection of fact. China has now announced its intention to put a stop to its rampant organ trade, an obviously popular, money-making venture that can result in a sale of $90,000 for a single kidney.

China was bypassing its own rules and regulations which stated that only if condemned prisoners freely give their written consent, may their organs be harvested for transplantation. It was that slippery slope, which descended into a system of widespread abuse. Poverty-stricken families were induced to offer organs for 'donation' through financial incentives, through the Red Cross Society of China.

Few Chinese other than the desperately poor or those unable to protect themselves are willing to give up their organs, since culturally, it is considered taboo to be buried without an intact corpse. Black-marketers in organs had no fear about what they were doing. They saw nothing amiss about openly advertising on the Internet. China tried, in 2007, to ban organ donations from people who had no familial interests, but even doctors profit from the trade and this too was circumvented.

The brisk trade is a result of over a million people every year requiring a medical organ transplant, in a country where fewer than ten thousand are able to receive the transplanted organs they require to survive morbid system collapse. Live donations from strangers - paid for their organs - to needy patients has risen to represent 40% of transplants, in 2008. Sixteen hospitals licensed to carry out organ transplants have had their licenses revoked as punishment for failing to comply with new regulations on organ transplants.

On the one hand, there is a newly-extinguished life with still-viable organs. Organs that could benefit another human being desperately in need of body parts to replace their failing organs. That is one hurdle to be dealt with. Absent the cultural taboo, and given that the indigent, desperate for money on which to live are willing to sell their own living body parts, a horrible solution presents itself where the wealthy may save their health and their lives and the poor provide the means.

Truly a horrible dilemma requiring wisdom beyond desperation of need to solve.