Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade

Unethical Organ Harvesting in China: Discussion

3:00 pm

Mr. Ethan Gutmann:

It is either coming from a prisoner or a prisoner of conscience. The argument in medical ethics is that it is not humane not to test the drugs. The argument must be made that the companies have to do it the expensive way and do it in the West. That is my position. It is much cheaper to do it in China and China would like to take over this area as it considers the pharmaceutical industry a pillar industry and an area of expansion. China would like to have its own FDA making all kinds of drugs available to the world. This is one of the most important pressure points on China. This information has got the Government worried. Wang Lijun went over there when there was a breach of discipline and he revealed some of this stuff. It put the Government in a sensitive position, to the point where I cannot imagine the Chinese Government coming out and doing its usual rebuttal if Australia, Ireland and Edinburgh move on this. The latter are talking about moving on this point and passing a law on organ tourism.