“China officials plan to phase out organ harvesting of death-row inmates, a move to overhaul a transplant system that has for years relied on prisoners and organ traffickers to serve those in need of transplants.”

– This doesn’t really explain why they are doing this. They could easily both harvest organs of death-row inmates and also have some other system.

“Human-rights groups say the harvesting is often forced and influences the pace of China’s executions.”

– Officials are almost killing the inmates for their organs.

“Mr. Huang has been quoted in state media reports as saying that the rights of death-row prisoners have been fully respected and that the state asks for written consent prior to donation.”

– Huang states that this is simply false.

“An estimated 1.5 million people in China are in need of organ transplants annually, while only 10,000 receive them, according to government statistics.”

– If they’re so many people in need of organs, why are they planning to remove a system that would provide more organs?

“An estimated 65% of China’s organ donations come from prisoners, according to 2009 data, the most recent available, from human-rights advocacy organization Amnesty International.”

– A plan like this, were it effective immediately, would cause a huge shortage of organs, and possibly kill more people than it plans to save.

“The report said the number of patients requiring transplants is growing due to the rise in chronic and noncommunicable diseases in China.”

– Something clearly needs to be done to not only increase organ supply, but decrease the rate of these diseases.