A lawmaker has called for an investigation into reports that China harvested the organs of three Filipinos executed in Zhejiang province last year. Representative Bernadette Herrera-Dy, vice-chairman of the House Committee on the Welfare of Children, said the reports are “alarming.” "It sends out a chilling thought that [Chinese authorities may] have been sending people to death row for their organs," she said today. Huang Jiefu, China’s vice-health minister, admitted last week that executed prisoners are the main source of transplant organs. Herrera-Dy said despite official claims that the condemned volunteer to donate their organs, there is no way a person facing death would freely consent. "None of those executed, including our compatriots Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain, could have readily consented to give away parts of their body,” she said. The three were executed last year in Shenzhen after being convicted of smuggling heroin into China. News reports over the weekend claimed that an estimated two-thirds of all transplanted organs in China are taken from prisoners. Beijing has denied allegations that it pressurised condemned prisoners and has promised to end the practice altogether within five years. Xinhua cited Huang as saying the Chinese government is set to end organ harvesting from prisoners within three to five years.
