Media Release: 29 September 2006

"A Fresh Chinese Kidney For A Dollar,Sir?"

"A few years ago when an American friend was staying with my family, her father - who had consumed a bottle of whisky every day for the previous twenty five years and was facing imminent death due to kidney failure - travelled from America to China for a kidney transplant. I was horrified when my friends' mother telephoned us from China to say they had arrived safely and were waiting on a 'donor' with the right blood match to be executed in a few days time."

"Given there are sixty crimes punishable by death in China and that most people in New Zealand find the concept of capital punishment abhorrent, I find it incredible that our government should still be considering their much exalted free trade agreement with China" says Judith Bell, author of the recently published book "I See Red" (published by Awa Press) which highlights human rights abuses in China.

"If we were to enter into an FTA with China, would this allow a large New Zealand trade entrepreneur to import organs from China and set up cheap transplant hospitals all over New Zealand under the guise they are 'lowering the cost of living for New Zealanders?'" asked Mrs Bell

"As we know, the other side of such justifications used by New Zealands largest importers, is a lowering of the worth of people both in New Zealand and in China. But in regard to Chinese organ 'donors', the issue is about lowering the worth of a life in a donor country which practises a barbaric form of justice repugnant to most New Zealanders who do not believe in an eye for an eye nor a kidney for a dollar."

Judith Bell Author of "I See Red" (Published by Awa Press) and available at all good bookstores and online at www.awapress.co.nz for only $29.99

ENDS

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