Mathias Krupna's List: 20 Politics

China carried out 8,000 kidney transplants   last year but only 270, or fewer than 4% of the   organs, came from voluntary donations.  

"The use of mobile execution chambers   exacerbates existing problems with prison-related   issues in China," Sharon Hom, executive director   of Human Rights in China, wrote in an e-mail   interview. "It facilitates the black-market trade   in organ sales particularly because there is no   access for independent monitors, such as the Red   Cross, to prisons, detention centers and labor   camps."

In China, it is illegal to remove   organs without the permission of the person in   question or his family members, but critics say   these obligations are commonly violated, not the   least because of the secrecy surrounding such   operations. Regulations issued in 1984 stipulate   that the removal of organs from executed prisoners   should be "kept strictly secret, and attention   must be paid to avoiding negative repercussions".