Israeli doc admits harvesting organs

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RAMALLAH:

The chief Israeli pathologist and director of the Institute
of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, professor Yehuda Hiss, has
admitted harvesting organs from the bodies of dead Palestinians
without the consent of their families.

Hiss said that he and doctors who worked under him took parts from
bodies â?" including skin, corneas and heart valves â?" in the 1990s
for transplantation. He also admitted that the same parts were taken
from dead Israelis for the same purpose.

The remarks came in an interview with Nancy Sheppard-Hughes, a
professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley
who tracks the organ trade worldwide. The one-hour interview was
recorded in 2000 as part of Sheppard-Hughesâ?T study at Abu Kabir and was broadcast on Israeli television on Friday night.

The report said Sheppard-Hughes decided to publish the interview
after the leading Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported in August that
Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to trade in their organs.
The Israeli pathologist said â?othe skins were taken from the bodies
and transmitted to Hadasah hospital in Jerusalem on the request of
sraeli Army to be transplanted to wounded soldiers and in case of
disaster.

Sheppard-Hughes said the taking of organs â?owas not only from
Palestinians and the bodies of terrorists, but all people. The
symbolism is of taking the parts from a population which is
considered enemy for military uses. This has to be reconsidered.â?
In August, Aftonbladet quoted Palestinians as saying that young men
from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israeli
forces and that their bodies returned to their families with missing
organs.

Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,â?T relatives of
Khaled from Nablus said to me, as did the mother of Raâ?Ted from
Jenin as well as the uncles of Mahmoud and Nafez from Gaza, who all
had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and
autopsied,â? wrote author Donald BostrÙ m in his report.
BostrÙ m also cited an incident of alleged organ snatching in 1992
during the first intifada.

He said Israeli soldiers seized a young man known for throwing stones
at Israeli troops in the Nablus area. The man had been shot in the
chest, both legs and the stomach before being taken to a military
helicopter which transported him to â?oa place unknown to his loved
ones.

Five nights later, BostrÙ m says, the young manâ?Ts body was returned, >wrapped in green hospital sheets.