Photo: VCG

A criminal gang from Central China's Henan Province was sentenced to up to two years in prison for organ trafficking and conducting illegal surgeries at a private hospital, media reported Wednesday. 

A nurse surnamed Xue, who worked at the Rongkang Bone Traumatology Hospital in Jiaozuo, a city of Henan, participated in several kidney transplants surgeries illegally conducted at the private hospital, and was responsible for taking care of the recipients of the organs between March and May 2019, according to a statement the Jiaozuo District People's Court released on China Judgments Online recently. 

Since she only played a minor role in the joint crime and had turned in all the illegal income, she was sentenced to jail for six months with probation, the statement shows. 

The gang leader surnamed Liang was sentenced to jail for two years and fined 15,000 yuan ($2,317) with all his illegal income of 100,000 yuan being confiscated after he turned himself in and confessed his crimes in October 2019. 

Between late March and early May 2019, Liang took advantage of the operation room and ward in the bone traumatology hospital which were contracted by another criminal surnamed Feng and organized about six illegal kidney transplants. 

Liang was responsible for arranging surgeons and looking for providers and recipients of the organs while Feng was responsible for arranging other medical personnel including anesthesiologists, assistant surgeons and nurses. One of the kidney recipients surnamed Jiao paid 700,000 yuan for a kidney transplant conducted in April 2019. 

To tackle the dark zone of organ trafficking, in July 2020, China's National Health Commission issued a draft for a revision to the Human Organ Transplantation Regulation to solicit public opinions, which includes rules on procurement, fair allocation of organs, legal age for donation and related charges to tackle trafficking and illegal transplants. 

The draft regulation specifies that the NHC must regularly review and certify hospitals that carry out transplant surgeries and gives specific regulations on how donor organs are to be acquired and allocated to recipients, stipulating that live organs can only be donated to relatives of the donor. 

Global Times