International

Foreign Minister Ben Bot has responded to a request from the SP to have the Dutch ambassador for human rights in China look into the question of illegal trade in human organs. SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel is concerned over reports that organs are being removed from executed prisoners without their prior permission

Belgian Liberal Senator Patrik Vankrunkelsven recently discovered that he could buy a new kidney in China for € 50.000. He was then told that he should place his order before 18th February, as a large number of people were due to be executed on that date. Senator Vankrunkelsven plans to bring forward a legislative proposal to make it a criminal offence to obtain organs abroad which have been acquired illegally.

Mr Van Bommel has asked the Foreign Minister whether such a law could not also be introduced in the Netherlands. “If we can make it a criminal offence to have sex with minors whilst abroad, then we can also put a legal ban on this sinister trade,” he said. “Illegal 'organ tourism' seems to me just as objectionable as that sort of sex tourism.”