Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the Chinese government on banning organ tourism to China.

Alok Sharma

As My Rt Hon. Friend, the former Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Hugo Swire, stated to the house on the 12 July 2016, we have raised concerns about reports of organ harvesting, as well as about the torture and mistreatment of detainees, during the annual UK-China human rights dialogue. We will do so again at the next round. My officials also raised the issue with their Chinese counterparts on 1 September 2016.

However, despite the fact that UK physicians always advise patients against, it is very difficult to prevent UK citizens travelling to less well-regulated countries to seek an organ transplant. Although numbers are not known, it is thought that very few patients in the UK choose to do so.