ROME — The World Health Organization says China has taken steps to end its once-widespread practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners but that it’s impossible to know what is happening across the country.
At a Vatican conference on organ trafficking this week, a former top Chinese official said the country had stopped its unethical program, but critics remain unconvinced.
In an interview Thursday, WHO’s Jose Ramon Nunez Pena said he personally visited about 20 hospitals in China last year and believes the country has reformed. But he acknowledged that it was still possible “there may still be hidden things going on.” China has more than 1 million medical centers.
Nunez Pena said he had seen data including organ transplant registries and was convinced the country was now shifting away from illegally harvesting organs.
“What is clear to me is that they’re changing,” he said. “But in a country as huge as China, we can’t know everything.”
Earlier this week, critics questioned China’s claims of reform and suggested that WHO should be allowed to conduct surprise investigations and interview donor relatives. The U.N. health agency has no authority to enter countries without their permission. “It sounds a little hard to believe that China could have so quickly made this change to its organ donation program,” said Vivek Jha, executive director of the George Institute for Global Health in India. He said China should provide the international transplant community with data to prove that its organs are no longer being illegally procured.