ORGANS FROM EXECUTED INMATES SELL IN CHINA FOR $18,000: CHINESE DOCTOR

WASHINGTON, June 25 - Organs removed from the bodies of executed prisoners often sell in China for up to $18,000, and those who receive them are told donors provided the organs voluntarily, according to a Chinese burn specialist who performed such procedures for more than a decade. "We were actually engaging in the selling of human organs. When other hospitals and units wanted human organs, we would sell them human organs," said Wang Guoqi, 38, a doctor in the burns unit at Tianjin Paramilitary Hospital from 1989-2000. "We made a profit from the operation. We charged between 130,000 and 150,000 yuan ($15,000 to $18,000) for each kidney transplant, including the kidney, which was free ... The profit margin was huge." Wang estimates he performed more than 100 operations that involved removing skin from executed inmates during his 11 years at Tianjin Paramilitary Hospital. Beijing's army hospital No. 304 paid the courthouse $20 to $50 for each corpse, Wang told Radio Free Asia (RFA) in an interview to be broadcast Tuesday (Chinese time). Wang performed such an operation for the first time in November 1988, when he was in Beijing for advanced training at hospital No. 304. The body was that of a young man aged 20-30 who had been shot through the head. Wang subsequently participated in such operations roughly once every 10 days, moving in 1989 to work at the Tianjin Paramilitary Hospital.