New execution rules drop organ donation articlesBy Wu Cheng-feng and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNAThe Ministry of Justice on July 1 unveiled a mandatory preview of draft amendments to the Regulations for the Execution of the Death Penalty (執行死刑規則), which would remove articles governing the use of organs from executed convicts. Although the use of organs from executed prisoners has been banned in Taiwan since the Human Organ Transplantation Act (人體器官移植條例) was amended in 2015, three articles in the regulations still contain rules that regulate the practice, the ministry said. That year, five prisoners were executed and three of the bodies were taken to a hospital for organ transplant surgery shortly after execution, it said. Recipients of the organs could also develop stress disorder after finding that the organs came from executed prisoners, it added. Amending the rules to require a prisoner to wear a hood would limit the chances of that happening, they added.

Source: Taipei Times July 12, 2020 15:56 UTC