The Canadian government is planning to investigate allegations that Falun Gong members in Chinese prisons are being murdered and their organs sold to transplant patients. Former cabinet minister David Kilgour and a respected human rights lawyer, David Matas, spent two months investigating the startling claims and have documented them in a 60-page report. "The allegations, if true, would represent a grotesque form of evil which, despite all the depravations humanity has seen, would be new to this planet," they say. The Chinese government banned Falun Gong as a subversive sect in 1999 and has imprisoned large numbers of its supporters.

The two men acknowledge that they have no eyewitness evidence, but from interviews and careful analysis of publicly available information, they conclude that thousands of people have been murdered. China has very few voluntary organ donors and relies on harvesting organs from about 1600 prisoners executed each year. But since 1999 -- the year of the crack-down on the group -- organ transplants have soared. Kilgour and Matas calculate that about 41,500 organ donors in that period are unaccounted for ­ which they believe to be Falun Gong supporters.

One informant was the divorced wife of a transplant surgeon who, she claimed, had removed the corneas of 2,000 Falun Gong supporters in two years. The victims were first given an injection to cause heart failure and their bodies were then cremated. Kilgour and Matas also produced translated transcripts of conversations with jails whose officials claimed that they could produce good quality organs quickly. Chinese hospitals often advertise on their websites that they can supply suitable organs in as little as one or two weeks. Kilgour and Matas point out that the median waiting time in Canada was 32.5 months in 2003. "The astonishingly short waiting times advertised for perfectly-matched organs would suggest the existence of both a computer matching system for transplants and a large bank of live prospective 'donors'."

The Chinese government is on an ethical slippery slope which began with capital punishment, the two Canadians claim. "When the state kills defenceless human beings already in detention for their crimes, it becomes all too easy to take the next step, harvesting their organs without their consent. This is a step China undoubtedly took. When the state harvests the organs of executed prisoners without their consent, it is another step that becomes all too easy and tempting to take to harvest the organs of other vilified, depersonalised, defenceless prisoners without their consent, especially when there is big money to be made from it."

They recommend that Chinese transplant surgeons be banned from entering Canada and other countries and that all governments should discourage their nationals from travelling to China for transplant operations. The Chinese embassy in Canada has vigorously denied all allegations made by the report and accused Kilgour and Matas of smearing China. It insists that China has banned the sale of organs and has always obtained informed consent for any organ transplants. ~ CanWest News Service, Kilgour and Matas report, statement of Chinese embassy.   

LESSONS FROM KOREAN STEM CELL DEBACLE DEBATED

Disgraced Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk has admitted that he ordered subordinates to falsify his cloning research. But he has insisted at his trial for embezzlement and violation of bioethics laws that his colleagues should share the blame. Dr Hwang told his staff to make it appear that results were based on 11 embryonic stem cell lines, rather than the two he was actually working on. And it appears that even these two were faked by a junior researcher without his knowledge. They were stem cells from IVF embryos, not clones. "It was definitely wrong," Hwang testified about the faked scientific papers. "I have no intention to escape the overall responsibility, but I feel differently about the view that all responsibility should lie with me as one of over 30 authors".

The lessons of the Hwang case are bitterly disputed in the US, where many scientists are pressing for Federal restrictions on funding for human embryonic stem cell research and cloning to be lifted. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Robert P. George, of Princeton University, and Eric Cohen, editor of The New Atlantis, argue that the Korean debacle demonstrates that human cloning corrupts science. Human cloning, even for research, is so morally problematic that its practitioners will always be covering their tracks, especially as they try to meet the false expectations of miraculous progress that they have helped create," they argue.

Instead of cloning, George and Cohen suggest that creative science is needed to provide solutions unencumbered by moral dilemmas in this promising field. "Looking ahead, it is becoming increasingly likely that reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency, rather than destroying human embryos, will be the future of regenerative medicine. It offers both a more efficient and far more ethical way forward."

George and Cohen's reasoning was dismissed by Glenn McGee, editor of the American Journal of Bioethics, in his blog as "silly trickery" intended to scare readers into believing that "nuclear transfer is so evil that it turns everyone who does it into a liar." ~ blog.bioethics.net, July 9; Washington Post, July 4,6   

AFTER 19 YEARS IN DARKNESS, TERRY WOKE UP

Neurologists are thrilled at the chance to examine the brain of an American man who "woke up" after 19 unresponsive years in a state of minimal consciousness. An article in the Journal of Clinical Investigation features images of the brain of Terry Wallis, now 42, who skidded off a small bridge in a pick-up truck back in 1984 and woke up in 2003. Although he is still severely impaired, physically and mentally, he is clearly recovering. He recently told his family that he was "proud" to be alive. It appears that his brain is healing itself by forming new neural connections, although what actually spurred his brain into new activity is still a mystery.

Although his case sounds remarkably like Terri Schiavo's, doctors say that Mr Wallis's injuries were less severe. During his 19 years of darkness, he never spoke but he was occasionally responsive and appeared to be aware of the presence of other people. Now he is being cared for by his parents and daughter in an impoverished hamlet in rural Arkansas. ~ New York Times, July 3   

SURROGACY BOOMING IN CALIFORNIA AND OREGON

There is always the risk that the surrogate mother will refuse to hand over the baby when it is born, contracts notwithstanding. Screening candidates for surrogacy is more rigorous than it used to be. Agencies like married mothers who have easy pregnancies and who are financially solvent and emotionally stable. But sometimes there are problems on the other side of the contract, says Cori Borjan, a 43-year-old who has had six surrogate children -- as well as children and grandchildren of her own. Sometimes the stress of the process causes couples to split up and reject the baby. She cites cases in which the intended parents rejected children because they were multiples or the wrong gender. ~ Oregonian, July 9   

IVF -- THE HUMAN SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY

Louise Brown a mother: The world's test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is expecting a child of her own, according to reports in the UK media. Ms Brown was born in 1978 and since then more than 3 million babies have been born around the world with artificial reproductive technologies. ~ Scotsman, July 10

Quality control: A London clinic has introduced a system for labelling everything involved in IVF procedures with microchips to prevent mishaps. The chief embryologist at the Essex Fertility Centre says that "looking at this system, I am confident that it is impossible to unknowingly mix samples." Confidence in existing procedures has been shaken after several high-profile mistakes. One of them resulted in Asian twins born to a white couple after the clinic used the wrong vial of sperm at a clinic in Leeds. The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the media, "My greatest sadness is that my husband is not the biological father of our children. All we wanted was a family. Instead, we were landed with a nightmare that will last forever." ~ London Telegraph, July 9

Older mothers: The UK is again debating the ethics of using IVF to allow women in their 60s to bear children. A leading fertility doctor, Sam Abdalla, said that he hoped that the boy born to 62- year-old Patti Rashbrook would remain an exception. He says that elderly mothers may not live long enough to see their child grow up. Selfish" and "irresponsible" were the words used by Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics. "I am sure the reaction from most of the population to this is one of revulsion and distaste," she said.

Ms Quintavalle also pointed out that a poor Eastern European woman may have been exploited in the process of supplying a donor egg for Ms Rashbrook. "I find it highly unlikely that full consent of the donating woman has been obtained in the sense that she knew that a 62-year-old woman would receive the egg," said Quintavalle. "Even if she had been told of its destination, it makes you wonder what kind of financial straits she would have been in to agree to it." Ms Rashbrook, who already has three adult children, and John Farrant, her second husband, who has none from his previous marriage, said that being a successful parent was not a matter of age. The world record is currently held by a retired Romanian university lecturer who became a single mum at the age of 66. ~ London Sunday Times, July 9

More blunders: In another instance of maladministration by an IVF clinic, a UK sperm donor has unwittingly fathered three children for lesbians even though he gave specific instructions that this was not to happen. The staff at the London Women's Clinic, alleges the Daily Mail, breached the terms of his consent by giving his sperm to four lesbian couples. The blunder was uncovered during an official inspection by the UK's fertility watchdog, the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority. The donor is unaware of his offspring because the clinic has lost contact with him. The lesbian couples have not been informed of the error. ~ Daily Mail, July 2   

IN BRIEF: creating sperm; Vatican comment

Scientists outraged: A top Vatican official has called for the excommunication of people involved in destructive embryo research. Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, recently declared that "destroying an embryo is equivalent to abortion". Although he was expressing a personal opinion, not laying down the law for Catholics, his remarks jolted the scientific world. Oxford bioethicist Julian Savulescu warned "This amounts to religious persecution of scientists which has no place in modern liberal societies." And stem cell scientist Dr Stephen Minger, of King's College London, commented: "Having been raised a Catholic I find this stance outrageous... I would argue that it is more ethical to use embryos that are going to be destroyed anyway for the benefit of mankind." ~ BBC, July 8; news@nature.com, July 6   

BIOEDGE IN THE MEDIA