Taiwanese Liver Transplant Surgeon Convicted for Brokering Organ Transplants in China

Chen Yao-li is the first Taiwanese doctor whose medical certificate has been revoked for illegally brokering organ transplants.

Taiwan lawmakers led by legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (C) held a press conference at Taipei Legislative Yuan to rally for support for proposing criminal law against forced organ harvesting on Dec. 9, 2022. Legislators Chang Liao Wan-chien (R), Kuo Kuo-wen (2nd R), Chen Su-yueh (3rd R), Lai Hui-yuan (3rd L), and Chen Jiau-hua (4th L) attended, along with human rights attorney Theresa Chu (2nd L) and Huang Chien-feng (L) from Taiwan Association for International Care of Organ Transplants. NTD

A district court in Taiwan has convicted and sentenced Chen Yao-li, a renowned Taiwanese liver transplant doctor, for illegally profiting from organ transplant referrals over more than a decade.

Changhua District Court has found that Chen made illegal profits of at least NT$14.66 million (US$466,000) for referring at least nine people to receive liver or kidney transplants in China, violating Taiwan’s Human Organ Transplant Act. The court sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for five years, and ordered him to pay NT$5 million ($158,000) to the national treasury.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare recently revoked Chen’s medical license for violating Article 16 of the Human Organ Transplant Act, and the official disciplinary notice was issued and sent on May 27, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA). The case marks the first time in Taiwan that a physician’s medical license has been revoked for illegally arranging organ transplants, as reported by CNA on Tuesday.

Health Authorities’ Revocation Shows ‘Moral Courage’

Huang Shi-wei, vice chairman of the medical ethics nonprofit Taiwan Association for International Care of Organ Transplants, praised the ministry for finally enforcing a 2006 administrative notice that bars doctors from referring patients to high-risk regions for transplants. He said in a recent interview with The Epoch Times that the health ministry’s decision to revoke Chen’s license shows “moral courage” after two decades.

“Organ transplantation involves not just the recipient but another person’s life and consent,” Huang said. “Helping patients obtain organs of unclear origin risks indirect involvement in harming donors.”

Huang, who has a background in urology and a doctorate in epidemiology, has long been engaged in efforts to expose and oppose international illegal organ trafficking. He has delivered numerous academic lectures highlighting illegal organ transplant practices in China.

In May last year at a symposium on overseas organ transplants and the ethical issues involved, he said that China’s organ transplantation industry is built upon systemic human rights abuses, describing it as “a structural humanitarian disaster.”

The China Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal based in London, said in its final judgment on March 1, 2020, that the Chinese regime continues to kill prisoners of conscience and sell their organs for profit, and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one of the main sources of human organs for transplant in China.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, chair of the China Tribunal into forced organ harvesting, on the first day of public hearings, in London on Dec. 8, 2018. Courtesy of Justin Palmer

Chen’s Case Summary

According to the ruling, since 2008, Chen had worked with a pharmaceutical sales representative surnamed Huang, a medical intermediary surnamed Lin, and others to broker multiple patients for liver and kidney transplants in China. The court verdict shows that they charged patients NT$5 million ($158,500) to NT$7.5 million ($238,400) for liver transplant packages and NT$3 million ($95,370) to NT$3.5 million ($111,300) for kidney transplants costs. The quotes covered fees paid for organs, Chinese doctors and nurses, travel expenses, medical expenses, and brokerage fees.

Chen, together with other defendants, arranged for 11 patients to undergo transplants at hospitals in China.

In 2015, Taiwan’s legislature amended the Human Organ Transplant Act, upgrading illegal organ brokering from an administrative violation to a criminal offense. Despite this, between 2016 and 2019, Chen—then serving as a surgeon at the Organ Transplant Center of Changhua Christian Hospital—continued to broker patients in need of liver and kidney transplants for surgery in China.

The prosecutor brought charges in relation to nine cases of illegal organ transplantation after July 2015.

Of the nine patients, five underwent liver transplants. One patient died less than two weeks after surgery; three others died within two years; and the final patient died within five years of the operation.

Connection With Doctors Allegedly Involved in Forced Organ Harvesting

According to court judgment records, during medical exchange activities, Chen met senior physicians from two Chinese hospitals: Zang Yunjin, a chief physician at the Organ Transplant Center of Qingdao University Affiliated Hospital in Shandong Province, and Ming Yingzi, director of the Organ Transplant Department at Xiangya Third Hospital of Central South University in Hunan Province. The judgment does not state whether Zang or Ming directly performed transplant surgeries.

The nonprofit World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has listed both Zang and Ming in its database of individuals allegedly involved in forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. According to WOIPFG statements, Ming was involved in or independently performed more than 500 kidney transplants, including living-donor procedures, and nearly 200 liver transplants. Zang was reported to have participated in approximately 1,600 liver procurement procedures at Tianjin First Central Hospital between January 2004 and August 2008, with an average donor age of 34.5 years.

Chinese media outlet Sohu reported in 2021 that Zang allegedly jumped from a building and killed himself on Feb. 26 that year, at the age of 57. According to Sohu’s report, he had performed more than 2,600 liver transplants in total, placing him among the leading figures in the field in China.

Hospital Ends Employment

Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Chen’s former employer, wrote in a statement shared with The Epoch Times that Chen was removed from his deputy superintendent post in December 2024. Following the license revocation by the Health Ministry, the hospital terminated his employment as an attending physician under its internal rules.

The hospital previously had a page on its website introducing Chen. According to the page, Chen obtained certification from Taiwan’s Department of Health as a cadaveric liver transplant surgeon in 2002, and performed his first deceased-donor liver transplant the same year. He later qualified as a living-donor liver transplant surgeon in 2004. By 2022, he had conducted a total of 741 liver transplants, averaging around 50–60 procedures per year.

Taiwan’s Human Organ Transplant Act stipulates that “Any organ for transplantation shall be provided or acquired free of charge.” According to Article 16 of the law, Taiwanese who broker organ transplants are subject to imprisonment of one to five years, and for medical professionals who violate the law, “their professional certificates may be revoked.”

Lai Wenru contributed to this report.