Roche

Roche

China proudly proclaims that roughly 10,000 organ transplants take place annually in its clinics. However because of Chinese culture, there are few voluntary organ donations from the population. Where do all the transplanted organs come from? At the end of 2008, the Chinese vice health minister admitted in a medical journal that more than 90 percent of all transplanted organs come from executed prisoners. The World Medical Association and other international organizations unanimously oppose the transplantation of prisoner organs on ethical grounds. Even when a prisoner supposedly consents to an organ donation, such consent while imprisoned cannot be considered of one’s own free will. The drug Cell Cept, from the Roche pharmaceutical firm, prevents the rejection of transplanted organs. Roche markets the drug in China despite the country’s unethical transplantation practices. The company has even been producing Cell Cept in China for several years. Furthermore, Roche is currently studying the drug’s effects in two studies with some 300 transplanted organs in Chinese clinics. Roche claims to have no information regarding the origins of the transplanted organs. The firm must therefore immediately halt these studies since it cannot ensure that none of the organs come from prisoners.