Head of Surgeons’ Association Strongly Objects to Law on Organ Transplants from Executed Prisoners
The head of Iran’s Surgeons Association in a letter to Raisi described the use of executed prisoners’ body organs for transplants as a “reprehensible” method. He asked the head of the judiciary to take “swift and appropriate action” to delete the article related to this matter.
Dr. Iraj Fazel, referring to Article 47 of the Regulations for Implementation of Criminal Sentences, which concerns the use of executed prisoners’ body organs for transplant, says this action “in any form and under any circumstance” has caused widespread concern and unease in Iran’s medical community and especially among Iranian surgeons.
According to Iranian media reports, the regulation on “Implementation of Hudud Sentences, Capital Punishment, Amputation and Retribution” was issued on June 18, 2019 by the head of the judiciary, Ibrahim Raisi.
The head of Iran’s Surgeons Association in a letter to the head of the judicial system, while strongly opposing Article 47 of this regulation, requested “swift and appropriate action” to remove it.
In the image of this letter published on the Iran Surgeons Association’s information website, the date is mentioned as the ninth of Tir month, but the text was published by domestic news agencies on Thursday, July 4.
An action with an “undesirable and criticizable history”
The head of the Surgeons Association wrote in part of this letter: “The use of body organs from those condemned to execution has a very undesirable, reprehensible and severely criticizable history, and not only will it provide little help to the needy, but it will severely threaten and call into question the dignified reputation of organ transplantation that was achieved through the lifetime, efforts and sacrifice of Iran’s medical community and physicians.”
Article 47 stipulates: “If the condemned person is willing to donate an organ before or after the execution of the sentence and there is no medical obstacle to organ donation, the judge of criminal sentence execution shall act according to a directive that shall be prepared within three months from the date of approval of this regulation by the Legal Deputy of the Judiciary in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Medicine Organization of the country and shall be submitted for approval by the head of the judiciary.”
Although this part of the regulation concerns voluntary organ donation by those condemned to execution, it faces considerable sensitivities due to the history of abuse of executed prisoners’ body organs in some countries.
According to reports, China, as a country with the highest number of executions, faced severe international criticism for years for using executed prisoners’ body organs for transplants, until about five years ago it announced the suspension of this process.
Strong objection to a “reprehensible method”
Despite the objections, the issuance of the criminal sentence implementation regulation has been welcomed by some legal experts. Rasoul Kohpayehzadeh, a lawyer, on June 19 called Article 47 of this regulation one of the “very important, interesting and positive aspects” and told the government news agency IRNA: “In fact, this measure and plan is foreseen and thought out so that a person condemned to death can donate their organ before or after the execution of the sentence.”
Nevertheless, the head of Iran’s Surgeons Association in the final section of his letter to the head of the judiciary explicitly stated that he “personally will never be willing to use this reprehensible method” and is confident that many of his colleagues are also “in such agreement” with him.
No report has been published so far regarding the judiciary chief’s possible response to this letter. Iraj Fazel is considered a pioneer of organ transplant surgery over the past few decades.
Source: DW
