Taiwanese official urges stronger checks on overseas organ transplants after probe

Taiwan's Control Yuan has revealed that 611 Taiwanese citizens underwent organ transplants overseas between 2015 and 2025, with a significant majority, 507 individuals, receiving procedures in China. This finding has prompted calls for stricter oversight of international organ transplantation practices.

The investigation focused on Dr. Chen Yaoli, a former liver transplant specialist, who was found to have arranged organ transplants for patients in China and charged substantial referral fees. This practice led to the revocation of her medical license by Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare, marking the first time a doctor faced such a penalty for involvement in overseas organ brokering. The case has raised serious questions about medical ethics and the regulation of physicians in Taiwan.

Control Yuan member Tian Qiujin stated that international organizations like the World Health Organization and the World Medical Association prohibit organ commercialization and condemn transplant tourism and forced organ harvesting. Despite Taiwan's 2015 amendment to the Human Organ Transplantation Act, which criminalized paid organ brokering, Dr. Chen allegedly continued to arrange at least nine transplants in China between 2016 and 2017, profiting approximately NT$14.66 million. A court sentenced her to two years in prison, suspended for five years, ordered her to pay NT$5 million to the public treasury, and confiscated her illicit gains.

The investigation also uncovered shortcomings in the handling of the case by relevant authorities, including delayed investigations and insufficient management of overseas organ transplants. The Control Yuan urged the Ministry of Health and Welfare to enhance its reporting, tracing, and verification mechanisms for overseas transplants. This includes clarifying whether referrals comply with international conventions and Taiwanese regulations, particularly given the concentration of cases in specific Chinese hospitals and with particular doctors. The report noted that major transplant hospitals in China included Guangzhou's First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, with specific doctors frequently listed as attending physicians for Taiwanese patients.

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The Ministry of Health and Welfare should strengthen the overseas organ transplant reporting, tracing, and verification mechanisms to clarify whether referrals comply with international conventions and Taiwan's regulations.