It is plainly unethical, not to say ghoulish in the extreme, to remove organs from recently executed prisoners in order to use them in transplant operations even if that saves patients’ lives. The Chinese Government – which used to allow this as a routine practice – has recently outlawed it, though international human rights organisations say it continues nevertheless. Now the Vatican has been sucked into the controversy by inviting Dr Huang Jiefu, chairman of the Chinese government body responsible for organ transplant policy, to attend a conference in Rome sponsored by the Holy See. A former deputy health minister, he is chiefly responsible for the policy reversal.

Medical ethics aside, it is highly significant that the Chinese Government thinks it worthwhile to be represented at such a conference. It has long been seriously at odds with the Roman Catholic Church, internally and externally, and Chinese Catholics loyal to Rome are still being routinely persecuted.