Third party body needed to be institutionise to check on Ministry of Health

Donor 'designated kidney expressly' for Tang


Tue, Jan 13, 2009
The Straits Times

By Teo Wan Gek, additional reporting by Nur Dianah Suhaimi and Estelle Low

Shortly before he received a new kidney last Friday, Mr Tang Wee Sung and his family became aware of the identity of the donor, said a family spokesman yesterday.

But, he added, Mr Tang, 56, and the donor did not know each other.

The Straits Times reported yesterday that the donor was believed to be triad leader Tan Chor Jin, who was hanged at Changi Prison last Friday.

The spokesman said the donor had expressly designated Mr Tang, the former chairman of department store CK Tang, as the recipient of his kidney.

He added: 'When you have someone who wants to donate to you, you don't have to be in the queue.'

He declined to confirm if Tan was the donor, saying 'we want to respect the privacy of the donor's family'.

At Tan's wake yesterday, both his wife, Madam Siau Fang Fang, and his elder brother, Mr Tan Chor Juay, said that they were not aware of Tan designating a recipient for his organs.

The Tang family spokesman said that Mr Tang was in a stable condition and was being closely monitored by doctors.

Asked when he will be discharged from the National University Hospital (NUH), the spokesman said that will depend on his condition and how well the kidney functions.

When The Sunday Times visited the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at NUH at noon yesterday, a female relative was waiting in the visitors' lounge.

Mr Tang could be seen in his room and was awake and being fed by a nurse. He looked alert and was not hooked up to any machine.

Shortly after, a male relative and Mr Tang's brother Wee Kit, 54, chairman and chief executive officer of Tang Holdings, arrived. They spoke for a few minutes to Mr Tang, who was sitting up in bed.

At about 1pm, Mr Tang was transferred to another ward. According to the nurses, his condition was good and had stabilised.

The male relative said: 'We're all happy he's well. He's been sick for a long time.'

Two relatives stayed on in the visitors' lounge while Mr Tang Wee Kit and the male relative left after visiting hours were over at 2pm.

Said the spokesman: 'There has been expression of well wishes, but due to limited visitation, just flowers and cards have been sent to his home and hospital.'

He said that when Mr Tang received news of an available donor kidney, 'he was very hopeful'.

There are no plans yet for Mr Tang to contact the donor's family.

'At this point in time we are focused on Mr Tang's recovery,' said the spokesman.

According to doctors interviewed, cadaveric organs that are harvested, whether from brain- dead patients in hospitals or hanged prisoners, are given to patients on the national transplant waiting lists.

There are lists for people needing kidney, liver, cornea and heart transplants, and this is managed by the Ministry of Health.

Under normal circumstances, when a cadaveric kidney is available, the patient with the best blood and tissue match will get it.

How long a patient has waited is secondary, said a kidney surgeon who declined to be named.

The average wait for a kidney in Singapore is nine years. Many renal patients die or get dropped off the list - because they are too old or too sick - before they can get one.

In 2007, Mr Tang was beset with end-stage renal failure. He needed dialysis six times a week, unlike other renal patients who have dialysis three times a week, his lawyer revealed in court last year.

It was reported that he had earlier been struck off the waiting list. Last October, he underwent triple heart bypass surgery and was deemed well enough for a transplant after that.

Last year, he was arrested here for trying to buy a kidney from an Indonesian. He was jailed for a day and fined $17,000 for the offence.

When someone designated his KIDNEY to you , you don have to queue ! Gosh ......... IT SUPER CORRUPTION ! How do you know MOH never eat the KOPI MONEY ? How on earth ppl know that the doner wanted to give the kidney to MR CK TANG ?

I cant think of way to describe how i felt now !

The spokesman said the donor had expressly designated Mr Tang, the former chairman of department store CK Tang, as the recipient of his kidney.

He added: 'When you have someone who wants to donate to you, you don't have to be in the queue.'

These fuckers cannot even lie properly. Why on god's blue earth would Tan Chor Jin even designate his kidney to Tang? He does not even know him. Since when have death penalty recipients been able to designate their organs to people? The state of Singapore will remove the organs themselves and sell it to the highest bidder. Why only designate his kidneys for donation? What about the cornea, heart, lung, etc. Where are the forms to show that everything is proper order for this donation?. these stupid reporters are not asking all these questions. I can tell u exactly what happened in this case. Tan's mistress when to Tang and negotiated a cash amount for his kideny "donation", or Tang's people approach Tan to arrange a "donation". We already know that Tang is willing to pay massive amounts of money. Its just that Tan did not give it to the wife, but his mistress instead.

IIRC, I remember that the government disallows designated donation of organs by unrelated people due to the possibility of organ trading. They made an exception in Andrea De Cruz's case as Pierre Png made some kind of promise that they will be getting married to each other. The other Indian lady in the liver poisoning case died because she could not find someone related who is a suitable donor, the only suitable donor found was a stranger who expressly designated her as the recipient. The only way to get donated organs then was to join the queue or get them from a relative.

I didn't know the laws have changed since then. Singapore sure sounds like Animal Farm.

I'm sorry but you don't know what you're talking about. Study the subject please, start here: http://www.10facts.com/cat/Health.html

China’s hi-tech ‘death van’ where criminals are executed and then their organs are sold on black market

Andrew Malone
UK Daily Mail
Saturday, March 28, 2009

Death will come soon for Jiang Yong. A corrupt local planning official with a taste for the high life, Yong solicited money from businessmen eager to expand in China’s economic boom.

Showering gifts on his mistress, known as Madam Tang, the unmarried official took more than £1 million in bribes from entrepreneurs wanting permission to build skyscrapers on land which had previously been protected from development.

But Yong, a portly, bespectacled figure, was caught by the Chinese authorities during a purge on corrupt local officials last year.

He confessed and was sentenced to death. China executed 1,715 people last year, so one more death would hardly be remarkable.

Disguised: The execution vehicle looks like a normal police van

But there will be nothing ordinary about Yong’s death by lethal injection. Unless he wins an appeal, he will draw his final breath strapped inside a vehicle that has been specially developed to make executions more cost-effective and efficient.

In chilling echoes of the ‘gas-wagon’ project pioneered by the Nazis to slaughter criminals, the mentally ill and Jews, this former member of the China People’s Party will be handcuffed to a so-called ‘humane’ bed and executed inside a gleaming new, hi-tech, mobile ‘death van.’

After trials of the mobile execution service were launched quietly three years ago - then hushed up to prevent an international row about the abuse of human rights before the Olympics last summer - these vehicles are now being deployed across China.

The number of executions is expected to rise to a staggering 10,000 people this year (not an impossible figure given that at least 68 crimes - including tax evasion and fraud - are punishable by death in China).

Developed by Jinguan Auto, which also makes bullet-proof limousines for the new rich in this vast country of 1.3 billion people, the vans appear unremarkable.

They cost £60,000, can reach top speeds of 80mph and look like a police vehicle on patrol. Inside, however, the ‘death vans’ look more like operating theatres.

We need checks on ALL Ministries.

All I'm asking for is ACCOUNTABILITY. Not suka suka change rules anytime to suit a chosen few

Watchman said:

China’s hi-tech ‘death van’ where criminals are executed and then their organs are sold on black market

Developed by Jinguan Auto, which also makes bullet-proof limousines for the new rich in this vast country of 1.3 billion people, the vans appear unremarkable.

They cost £60,000, can reach top speeds of 80mph and look like a police vehicle on patrol. Inside, however, the ‘death vans’ look more like operating theatres.

[/B]

Click to expand...

StINkerpore may have bought a few of these, disguised as POLICE riot squad vehicle, rapid deployment vehicle...

One day CSJ will find one of his organ missing...