Breaking: Taiwan Doctor Gets 2-Year Sentence, Lifetime Ban for Sending Patients to China for Organs
Great news! A Taiwanese doctor who referred patients to mainland China for organ transplants has been sentenced to two years in prison, had his medical license revoked, and is permanently banned from practicing medicine again.
Taiwan's top liver specialist Chen Yao-li (陳堯俐) and others were found guilty of arranging for nine patients to travel to China for organ transplants, earning NT$14.66 million (US$466,433) in brokerage fees. Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare has officially revoked his physician’s license, making this the first case in Taiwan in which a doctor has lost his medical credentials for facilitating organ transplant procedures in China.
On June 2, Taiwan’s Department of Medical Affairs confirmed that Chen Yao-li has permanently lost his qualification to practice medicine and will never again be eligible to take Taiwan’s national physician licensing examination.
A Taiwanese court also found Chen guilty of violating the Human Organ Transplant Act, sentencing him to two years in prison, suspended for five years, and ordering him to pay NT$5 million (US$159,015) to the public treasury.
According to prosecutors, Chen had been working since 2008 with nurses, biotechnology company owners, and others to illegally arrange liver and kidney transplants for multiple patients in mainland China.
Among the nine patients referred to China through Chen and his associates, five received liver transplants. One patient paid NT$14 million (US$445,200) for the operation but died less than two weeks afterward. Three others died within two years of their transplants, while the fifth patient also passed away within five years of surgery.
The Chinese Communist Party’s large-scale organ harvesting industry began alongside the persecution of Falun Gong and has continued for more than two decades. Today, many ordinary Chinese citizens, especially children and young people, have also become victims.
The Taiwanese court’s ruling serves as a warning to other unethical physicians.
Taiwan’s Human Organ Transplant Act was originally enacted on June 19, 1987. However, significant amendments were adopted in 2015, transforming illegal organ brokerage from an administrative violation into a criminal offense. The revised law explicitly prohibits organ trafficking, brokerage activities, and transplant tourism, including procedures conducted overseas.
The amendments also require patients who receive organ transplants abroad and later seek follow-up treatment in Taiwan to disclose information about the organ source, transplant hospital, and related details. These measures were designed to align Taiwan with international ethical standards, including the Declaration of Istanbul and World Health Organization guiding principles, and to prevent commercialization and ethical abuses in organ transplantation.
The 2015 revisions were enacted amid growing international exposure of forced organ harvesting in China. During legislative debates, lawmakers explicitly discussed controversies surrounding organ sourcing in China, including the use of organs from executed prisoners and forced organ harvesting from living individuals.
Legislators emphasized the need to prevent Taiwanese patients and physicians from becoming involved in organ transplants linked to non-consensual organ sources and viewed the issue as both a human rights and medical ethics concern.
By strengthening these barriers, Taiwan has taken a firm stand against becoming complicit in one of the most monstrous medical crimes in modern history. This case underscores the moral imperative for doctors to reject any involvement with China’s tainted organ supply chain.
6/2/2026
