Doctors from Asian countries Sunday condemned the illegal trade in human organs, urging their nations to promote donation for use in transplants. Doctors from Taiwan, China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Iran, the Philippines, the Netherlands and the United States took part in the second meeting of the Asian Task Force on Organ Trafficking.
The weekend meeting in Taipei, hosted by the National Taiwan University and Taiwan's National Science Council, aimed at exposing the trade in Asian countries and promoting measures to stop it.
India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Iran have seen poor people selling their organs, while in China there have been reports of illegal use of organs from death-row prisoners for the benefit of patients who are mostly foreigners and overseas Chinese.
Hundreds of Taiwanese fly to China each year to receive kidney and liver transplants, fully aware that the organs were obtained from executed prisoners.
A report by Farhat Moazam, a doctor from Pakistan, showed that more than 2,000 kidney transplants take place every year in Pakistan, with almost all kidneys obtained from living sources.
A survey in Punjab Province showed that of the 239 people who had sold kidneys, almost all had needed to pay off debts - but only four per cent had succeeded in becoming debt-free.
The meeting issued the Taipei Recommendation urging Asian countries to halt the illegal trade, particularly from executed prisoners, and to launch hospital cooperation programmes.
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