
Chinese gangs using ‘blood slaves’
Organ transplant technology has led to well-documented abuses. But it’s novel to hear of blood transfusion as a criminal activity.
The South China Morning Post reports that a 31-year-old Chinese security guard known as Xiao Li was kidnapped in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southern China and trafficked into Vietnam and then Cambodia by a gang of kidnappers. After they discovered that he was an orphan and that no one would pay a ransom, they realised that his O-type blood was valuable.
He became a “blood slave”, according to the SCMP. Monthly, since last August, 800 ml of blood was taken from him. It was probably sold to private buyers online. If he refused to give blood, the gang threatened to sell his organs. Several other “blood slaves” were kept in the same place.
The American Red Cross recommends that people make whole blood donations at a maximum of every 56 days, up to six times a year.
Earlier this month Li escaped and was hospitalised and treated for multiple organ failure. He is recovering well.
The SCMP says that the kidnapping and use of “blood slaves” is not uncommon in Cambodia.
More Stories
Should uterus transplants for transwomen get insurance cover?
Insurance cover in the United States for contraception, abortion, and transgender procedures is controversial, especially if private insurers are responsible....
Police bust kidney network that exploited desperate Indonesians
Jakarta police have arrested 12 people, including a policeman and an immigration officer, for trafficking 122 Indonesians to Cambodia to...
Victoria: should we do away with the dead donor rule?
Lobbying to do away with the dead donor rule and even to make possible organ donor euthanasia has begun in...
Nigerian power couple convicted in London over organ trafficking plot
In May last year, a young Nigerian man stumbled into a police station into the English town of Staines, in...
Mass confusion
Massachusetts politicians who proposed that prison inmates could reduce their sentences if they donated organs have retreated from their original...
New frontiers in organ donation: from DDR to ODE to LVOD
After Organ Donor Euthanasia (ODE), what’s next? Living vital organ donation (LVOD) – giving your heart away even though you...