Charity denies illegal organ trade

A private charity in Beijing dismissed the allegation that it was involved in illegal organ trafficking as indicated by online photos that showed a dead girl's organs were removed in an autopsy.

Yi Yi [file photo]?

The Children's Hope Foundation said yesterday that a volunteer was invited to take the pictures of the four-year-old Yi Yi's autopsy as evidence that the abandoned girl died of severe hydrocephaly and organ failure.

The volunteer identified by his Weibo username "Zhandouji" confirmed this and said Yi Yi died in Beijing China-Japan Friendship Hospital on December 9 and an autopsy was conducted by Beijing Huaxia Evidence Identification Center on December 17.

A center official surnamed Hu told the Beijing News that the girl died of severe hydrocephaly and organ failures. "Her organs had already deteriorated and could never be utilized," Hu said.

The photos were posted on Sunday by Weibo blogger named Wu Xuxin, who used to work as a volunteer in the nursing home run by the Children's Hope Foundation where Yi Yi stayed for nearly a year and he knew the girl.

The photos drew suspicions of some Weibo bloggers who feared the girl's organs were taken out for illegal organ trade.

Yi Yi was abandoned by her impoverished family in southwestern Guizhou Province. She was once badly beaten up by her mother for spewing milk on the bed and her brain injury turned into encephalatrophy and impaired her eyesight. Her father then gave her to the Children's Hope Foundation.