Wow, China just eliminated a whole messy step in their prisoner execution organ transplant operation.

The old routine was for the prisoner to be convicted and genotyped and then sit in holding till some foreigner needing a new liver of kidney comes over that matches.

On the morning of the operation, the prisoner was sentenced to death, pumped full of ativan/valium, anticoagulants and maybe even a  pinch of thorazine to insure good behavior, trucked out to a big field and then shot point blank at the base of the skull from the back.   Then the executed were taken into the nearby field morgue tent where their parts were cut out and sent back to the hospital.  

Kind of messy and labor intensive as the condemned had soldiers holding them on each arm while a third shot at the command of the big boss blowing a whistle-  Kinda like a marching band conductor. And they sometimes did 20 at once.

Now, that whole messy business with the rifle is gone.  All the steps are the same except the condemned goes straight to the shiny new mobile field morgue bus.  They're put under general anesthesia, cut open, have their organs cut out and then maybe the boss that used to have the whistle comes along and slits a vein to bleed them out.

Florida should send some people over there to learn how not to screw-up an execution.  But I have a feeling China has had some major screw-ups.  But they do so many that how could they not get good at it.    

GG is correct. There are many executions in China, and the organs are harvested. Murderers are almost always executed, as well as many rapists. The families have no say in this.
I am not sure about the draining method GG is talking about, but the shot to the base of the skull is traditional.
There is also a market for the organs for foreigners, which is growing.
Like they say, nothing is wasted in China.

blurb on China's new mobile execution vans.  ANd then some other special/documentary on the Red Army Hospital making bucks doing organ transplants where condemned prisoners are the donors.

Since the 1990s China has executed prisoners by lethal injection, just so the organs would remain usuable.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-1901558,00.html

I beleive very little from the NY times, TMT.
My SO is Chinese, and I have been to China. I also know someone who has personal knoweledge of the practice there, a M.D. I would not answer any post without having some subject knoweledge.

Wrong Times, dude. That link was to the Times of London, not the NY Times, but you're right the story is bunk and apparently got twisted.  The actual story was that China was phasing out public executions by firing squad in favor of lethal injections in "death vans" that go from town to town. No organ harvesting involved.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-14-death-van_x.htm