Israeli Doctor Witnesses Skin Transplant Operation in China

April 5, 2007
By NTDTV

 

Professor Arye Eldad, MD, Israeli parliament member, explains how a Chinese transplant surgeon requests that a prisoner be shot to accommodate the size specifications of his patien

The following is a transcript of a story broadcast on NTDTV’s Asia Brief. The video can be viewed on the original article page, by clicking here.

CHAN:

Israeli skin transplant specialist and parliament member Professor Arye Eldad, said in an interview that he visited China to attend a skin transplant operation and to learn more about skin transplants, but when he asked the surgeon where the skin came from, he was told that it was harvested from a prisoner who was shot shortly prior to the operation. Here’s his story.

[PROFESSOR ARYE ELDAD, ISRAELI PARLIAMENT MEMBER]:

“I asked the surgeon who I went to visit his hospital, to see his method, and I asked him: ‘How do you freeze such a huge piece of skin, you really have to skin the dead person and keep his skin in the fridge until you have the right person who needs it. He said: ‘No, we are not using any freezing method, we are using only fresh’. ‘How do you happen to have fresh skin in such a huge dimension, especially when you have a 90% burn which is rare even in China? ‘ He said: ‘No, in any given moment there are hundreds of people in China waiting for a death sentence, and we call the prison and tell them: ‘We have a burned patient which is about 70 kilo, 1 m 75 cm tall, so they shoot the person in the right dimension to the patient that I need to treat.’ “