The international body representing transplant specialists, The Transplantation Society (TTS) has agreed for the first time to enforce a policy that none of its members should use their skills to take organs from executed prisoners for transplant.
The policy has been announced following the recent World Transplant Conference (WTC) in Boston, US. The WTC is a gathering of a variety of transplant societies who meet biennially to address ethical and medical developments in their area of expertise.
Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Director of Medical Affairs for TTS, Dr. Francis Delmonico, said reinforcement of the policy was necessary following the release of a report from a former Canadian MP and cabinet minister David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer, David Matas which concluded thousands of practitioners of the persecuted Falun Gong meditation practice have been executed for their organs in China.
"The Transplantation Society is opposed to the use of organs from executed prisoners," Dr Delmonico said in a formal statement.
"This position of The Transplantation Society is not new; yet it was important to reaffirm a current position because of the developments that have come to attention by Kilgour and Matas and others."
Dr. Delmonico said that all transplant professionals should conform to the policies laid out in the "policy and ethics statement of TTS (available at its website) and consistent with the guiding principles of the World Health Organisation."
The Policy Statement of the TTS Ethics Committee, states that organs and tissues should be freely "given without commercial consideration or financial profit", that consent should be obtained; and that TTS members "must not be involved in obtaining or transplanting organs from executed prisoners".
All applicants for membership to TTS must accept the policies of the Ethics Committee and sign the policy statement.
While the Canadian report concedes there is more information to be gained to further substantiate allegations, the authors of the report do say they "know for a fact that executed prisoners have their organs harvested without their consent" and conclude that, after exploring 18 different avenues of proof and disproof, "there has been, and continues today, to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners".
Dr. Delmonico, who is also advisor for human transplantations for the World Health Organisation (WHO), said the allegations raised in the Canadian report should be investigated by "appropriate authorities".
Professor of Surgery at Sydney University, Dr. Richard Allen, said The Transplantation Society was too small an organisation to investigate the allegations made in the report and that, in conjunction with WHO, the society would be referring the issue to the United Nations Commission for Human Rights for investigation.
Dr. Allen, an executive member of the Council for TTS said the TTS is, and always has been, in agreement on the unacceptability of using organs from executed prisoners.
While the transplant community was united behind this policy, Dr. Allen said there was still discussion on how to approach training and academic exchange with Chinese transplant professionals. He explained that there were some in the international transplantation community who believe that by cutting off all exchange, an opportunity is missed to promote to Chinese transplant professionals and students the significant advantages, particularly to the transplant recipient, of the use of conventional ventilated donors diagnosed with brain stem death.
In line with recommendations in the Kilgour-Matas report, others argue that the Chinese transplant profession should not be allowed to benefit from academic and medical exchanges until its practices are open, ethical and transparent.
Dr. Allen says the issue continues to be under discussion within the transplant community.
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