Since 2006, China has made a name in the organ transplant field for speedy organ sourcing. For example, “kidney transplants from living people” was in 2004 listed on the FAQ section of the Shenyang-based First Hospital of China Medical University website. The announcements on the International Transplant (China) Web Support Center website (www.zoukiishoku.com) have since been removed. The site said “finding a matching source for liver transplants takes from about a month to two months; for kidney transplants it takes between a week and a month.”
With such unusually fast sourcing, the surgeries are expensive. The website included a price list that showed a kidney transplant for $60,000, a liver transplant for $100,000, and a lung or heart transplant costing over $150,000.
Such ads attracted patients from all over the world. According to a 2004 Life Week report, the Tianjin Oriental Organ Transplant Center conducted organ transplants for many wealthy Chinese people and officials, and tens of thousands of patients from abroad. “Besides Koreans, the Tianjin First Central Hospital also treated patients from nearly 20 Asian countries and regions, including Japan, Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Amman, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan,” the report said