We thought we were all pretty hot with that whole "Death with dignity" thing. Hoo boy! "Physician-assisted suicide". How cutting-edge, to say nothing of the "green" benefits derived from convincing expensive losers to off themselves. It's a linchpin in Oregon's "progressive" image.
But darned if the Chinese haven't one-upped us.
They've got mobile "death-van" units. China executed 1,715 people last year, but that number is expected to rise to 10,000 people this year.
The cool thing about these rigs is that they're set up so that doctors can harvest useable body parts quickly. This is critically important:
'The liver loses its function only five minutes after the human cardiac arrest,' the officer told our researcher.
'The kidney will become dysfunctional 30 minutes after cardiac arrest. So the removal of organs must be completed at the execution ground within 15 minutes, then put in an ice box or preservation solution.'
This is a huge step from the old days, when they executed a prisoner with a bullet to the head and then forced the family to pay for the bullet. Chinese hospitals perform up to 20,000 organ transplants each year. A kidney transplant in China costs £5,000, but can rise to £30,000 if the patient is willing to pay more to obtain an organ quickly.
