Health authorities deny corpses were submitted to organ harvesting

Maputo, 7 Mar (AIM) – The Mozambican health authorities have denied that corpses found inside a vehicle belonging to Maputo Municipal Council were lacking their body parts after being submitted to forced organ harvesting.

The vehicle in question was halted on Wednesday by protesters when it was going to Michafutene Cemetery, in the southern municipality of Matola, after the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR – the Mozambican riot police) attacked a motorcade of former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.

After the vehicle was stopped, the protesters opened its luggage and found several corpses, which they assumed were victims of organ harvesting. The protesters then physically assaulted the driver of the vehicle, and sabotaged it, including by slashing its tyre.

However, Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), the county’s largest health facility, on Thursday called the press to deny that body parts had been cut out of the corpses.

According to Stela Matsinhe, coroner at the HCM, “all the corpses that were inside the vehicle, transferred from the HCM morgue on Wednesday, and on their way to the Michafutene cemetery, had their organs complete, which means that the reports that went viral on social media about organ harvesting are false.”

“There is no law that has been approved for organ donation. By this I mean that there is no access in Mozambique to the organs of Mozambicans for any purpose”, she added.

According to Matsinhe, in those countries where organ harvesting is properly regulated, donations must take place before an individual loses his life “otherwise these organs are of no value to the recipient. In other words, the cells must be alive in order to have the desired effect on the recipient’s body.”

She explained that there are legal procedures that must be carried out in health centres, where the bodies are submitted to an autopsy in order to investigate the causes of death.

“These autopsies can take place not only for deaths inside health centres that require more in-depth study, but also on bodies that come from outside because of suspected violence. To do this, the whole body has to be opened up, all parts of it analyzed. This process is carried out by trained staff. When this process is finished, the body is closed with a suture, as we call it, so that the body can be returned to its family with a minimum of dignity”, she said. That was why some of the bodies in the vehicle bore stitches.

She insisted that no medico-legal autopsy is carried out without the family’s authorization. “They must consent to the autopsy being carried out, or if they want to know the cause of death, request the autopsy, sign and confirm the request,” said Matsinhe.

Matsinhe took the opportunity to call on the population to approach the authorities if there is any situation that falls outside the standards she mentioned. “We are available to enforce justice for the population and ensure that our deceased have a proper burial.”
(AIM)
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