History of Organ Transplantation in China
1960s
The Chinese Communist Party Central Military Commission has documentation from 1962 to the present day that all death row and serious offenders can be treated according to the needs of national and socialist development and can be dealt with according to the “revolutionary protocol.”
1970s
The first recorded case of organ harvesting from a prisoner of conscience takes place in October 1978.
1980s
1990s
July 1999
2000
2002-2003
The first “organs-only” physical examinations conducted on House Christians and Tibetans are reported.
2005
2006
Chinese officials deny acquiring organs from death-row prisoners.
2007
Before 1999, there were 150 transplant institutions in mainland China. In 2007, more than 1,000 hospitals apply for permits from the Ministry of Health to continue performing transplants. Among them, 164 receive permits.
Since January 2007, Deputy Minister of Health Huang Jiefu has consistently declared that organs were sourced from executed prisoners.
2010
2013 - August
2013 - November
2014
In March, Huang Jiefu says, “We will regulate the issue by including voluntary organ donations by death-row prisoners in the nation’s public organ donation system…Once entered into our unified allocation system, they are counted as voluntary donations of citizens. The so-called death row organ donation doesn’t exist any longer.”
2015
However, new research shows that the harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience has not stopped.