Illegal Organ harvesting from Minorities and Political Prisoners in China

johnq

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166,000 Petition the UN to Probe Forced Organ Harvesting in China
More than 166,000 people from 36 countries have signed a petition, calling on the UN to investigate claims of forced organ harvesting in China. [Arne Schwarz, Investigator on Forced Organ Harvesting]: "This shows that indeed really a lot of people, really a lot of people for them it is not insignificant what happens so far away in China. I think this is really, really encouraging." The two groups behind the petition, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, and the Italy-based Nonviolent Radical Party presented the petition on Monday in Geneva. Those who have investigated forced organ harvesting say the main group of victims is Falun Gong. One practitioner of the spiritual practice, Annie Yang, spoke about her experience in a Beijing labor camp. [Annie Yang, Victim of medical tests in Beijing Labor Camp]: "But organ harvesting is from what I know, because when I was at the camp they torture us, and basically all human rights were taken away, but I have a body check regularly I think every 3 month, very specific. You know eyesight, blood test, and kidney and chest x-ray and urine. They checked everything." Swiss bioethics researcher, Arne Schwarz, condemned the killing of individuals for their organs [Arne Schwarz, Investigator on Forced Organ Harvesting]: "Wanting to kill a human being, does it justify killing another one? And especially Falun Gong practitioners, usually they are young, healthy people which were not convicted by any court and were just put into detention and not at all because they did any criminal offence, but only because of their spiritual believes." The petition will be presented to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. This month, another petition in the US was started, similarly calling on the US government to investigate the matter.
 

johnq

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Falun Gong protest: 17 years of Communist China’s religious persecution and organ harvesting
Christopher Wilson reports on the Chinese Communist government's brutal crackdown on practitioners of Falun Gong after attending an event in Vancouver to mark the 17th anniversary of the persecution. While there, Christopher learned of the even darker practice of organ harvesting that receives no media coverage around the world. Watch Christopher's video for the disturbing story. MORE http://www.therebel.media/falun_gong_...
 

N4tsula67

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I doubt UN would take any step against china.
It is a paper tiger. China is also members of UN human rights council lmao.
UN Human rights council is a joke all the members are themselves have been worst human rights violaters.
 

johnq

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Tortured in Red China – The Persecution of Falun Gong
The testimony of Charles Lee Interviewed by G. Edward Griffin Dr. Charles Lee is one of the few political prisoners held in Chinese prisons who has survived to tell about it. After receiving a medical degree in China, he came to the U.S. in 1991 for graduate study and soon thereafter became an American citizen. In 2003 he returned to China to proclaim the truth about government persecution of Falun Gong, a non-violent, spiritual movement dedicated to “Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.” He was arrested and sentenced to 3 years in prison where he was beaten, force-fed, and tortured, which he describes in gruesome detail in this video interview by G. Edward Griffin. On January 21, 2006, Charles was released and returned to San Francisco. Now he is a leader in the movement that has motivated millions of members of the Chinese Communist Party to resign.
 

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"Guards Drew My Blood." Recalling Nightmare of Falun Gong Persecution in Chinese Detention
Through practicing Falun Gong, Angel regained her health. But, so long as she was in China, she was not altogether free. Angel was once again arrested and detained in 2004. Her crime? Distributing information about the persecution that Falun Gong practitioners are subject to in China. Whilst the CCP madly persecutes adherents of the spiritual practice, the regime goes all out to keep the details a secret from China’s 1.3 billion. It should be considered a noble act for someone of their own initiative to raise awareness of human rights abuses, but in China, speaking out against the regime can land one in prison, and has cost too many their lives. For Angel, she was subject to even more, horrendous torture. “Several people pinned me down to force feed me,” Angel recalls of her third time being detained. "In order to get released earlier, prisoners collaborated with the police to torture us wildly.” "They jumped on my chest with as much force as possible with their whole body weight pressing down. "Some prisoners forcefully grabbed my head. Others pulled my hair as they force fed me.” "They force fed me extremely salty things. I felt terribly thirsty. My tongue felt dry like sand. My stomach felt like it was burning. I don’t know what they poured in.” There was one strange incident, however, which Angel experienced in detention. "When I was incarcerated guards drew my blood.” "I was confused at the time. Of the 20 people detained in that large room, why was only my blood drawn? Why didn’t they take blood from anyone else?” Angel was the only Falun Gong practitioner in that room. It certainly was not because the guards were concerned about her health, as Angel was being tortured and abused daily. "It was finally in 2006 when the truth was revealed. The Chinese Communist Party is killing Falun Gong practitioners for their organs to sell. That’s when I finally realized that the CCP is engaged in such evil. Killing innocents on demand." After more than a month of being force fed and abused in the detention center, Angel was in bad shape. She couldn’t walk, nor could she take care of herself. She had to be carried everywhere. Despite her condition, she was sent to a forced labor camp to make products for export. But Angel had been so badly tortured, she needed to be taken to the forced labor camp’s infirmary. “Medical staff there checked my physical condition. A doctor said that as my endocrine was a mess, I could die at any moment, so it was useless to treat me. They refused to accept me." The police officers who had driven her to the forced labor camp couldn’t just leave her there, nor could they take her back to the detention center. Once again, Angel’s family was notified to pick her up. It was too much for Angel’s elderly mother when she laid eyes on her daughter in the patrol car, lying there motionless. "I was persecuted to the point of being unrecognizable. My elderly mother cried, shouting my name. The policemen told my mother: ‘We’re handing her over to you. She’s still alive.’” Learn More Angel's Story: https://faluninfo.net/guards-drew-my-... Forced Organ Harvesting in China: https://faluninfo.net/forced-organ-ha... #china #falungong #organharvesting #falundafa
 

johnq

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What is Falun Gong and Why is it Persecuted? | China Uncensored
In 1999, then leader of China Jiang Zemin declared the Communist Party must eradicate Falun Gong! But why? What really is Falun Gong? On this episode of China Uncensored, the truth will be revealed.
 

johnq

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BBC Points West report organ harvesting in Bristol's twin city Guangzhou 17 10 18
News investigation into organ trade from prisoners of conscience in Bristol's twin city Guangzhou, China. Organs are said to be from harvested from Falun Gong practitioners, and other prisoners of conscience. Campaigners call for Bristol to cut ties with Guangzhou, asking council to put human rights over commerce. Originally released: Wed 17th October 2018 on BBC Points West. PLEASE SIGN PETITION: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/de-twi... More on this topic: Bristol urged to de-twin from Chinese city over 'organ harvesting' https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-b... Bristol told to de-twin from China’s Guangzhou over ‘forced organ harvesting’ https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/br...
 

johnq

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European Parliament Members Statements on Organ harvesting in China
Website ►http://endorganpillaging.org/ Facebook ►https://www.facebook.com/EndOrganPill... Subscribe ►http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c... On December 12th, 2013, Members of European Parliament made statements on resolution P7_TA-PROV(2013)0603, condemning Organ harvesting in China. Statements made by the following European Parliament Members: Raül Romeva Tunne Kelam Kristiina Ojuland Monica Macovei Franz Obermayr Eija-Riitta Korhola Franz Obermayr Sari Essayah Eija-Riitta Korhola Laima Andrikienė
 

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Understanding the Evidence of Forced Organ Harvesting in China | Prof. Wendy Rogers
This presentation provides an overview of the multiple lines of evidence, and the primary investigations and reports, that were reviewed by the China Tribunal. Aimed to inform those who are new to the issue of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China, and to assist participants so they understand the main lines of evidence and can explain them to others in their advocacy. ABOUT PROFESSOR WENDY ROGERS Wendy Rogers is Professor of Clinical Ethics at Macquarie University, Australia and Chair of ETAC’s international Advisory Committee. Wendy’s work is widely published in international medical and bioethics journals. In 2019, Wendy received the NHMRC Ethics award and was identified as Australia’s leading researcher in the field of bioethics. Her research exposing publication of unethical Chinese transplant research has been internationally recognised, leading to her inclusion in Nature’s list of 10 people who mattered in science in 2019 and Medscape’s 12 best physicians of the year. ___ WEBSITE ► http://endtransplantabuse.org/ TWITTER ► https://twitter.com/OrganCoalition
 

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David Kilgour - China Transplant Crime
An intimate one-on-one with the renowned former secretary of state. The issue of China’s transplant practices first came to light through a whistleblower in March 2006. In response, David Kilgour and David Matas launched an independent investigation. Investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann later spent seven years doing his own research. He reached similar conclusions. In 2016, the three investigators joined forces, evaluating primary source research about the activities of hundreds of transplant hospitals around China. Drawing on media reports, official statements, medical journals, hospital websites, and web archives, their findings show that China’s transplant industry became among the most prolific in the world in just a few years, despite the lack of any organ donation system. THE ISSUE | Over the past decade, reports have emerged that the Chinese regime is killing prisoners of conscience to supply its vast, lucrative organ transplantation industry. New evidence and figures mined from primary Chinese sources are now uncovering the nature and scale of these abuses. On June 22, 2016, three respected independent investigators published a 680-page report illustrating a state-driven industry that transplants far more organs—by an order of magnitude—than can be accounted for by official sources, which China says are executed prisoners and voluntary donors. China’s organ harvesting has become a focus of media outlets around the world. Hearings have been held by U.S. Congress, the British Parliament, and the European Parliament. The U.S House of Representatives and the European Parliament have passed resolutions condemning the practice.
 

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Sitting One - Dec 8, 2018 - Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting
The Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China For the first time 30 fact witnesses and experts from around the world step forward to give evidence before an independent people’s tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC (former prosecutor of war crimes at the UN’s tribunal for the former Yugoslavia). Joining Sir Geoffrey Nice is a panel of six members with backgrounds in international law, medicine, business, international relations and Chinese history. Mr Hamid Sabi will provide legal counsel, drawing on his expertise from the Iran Tribunal. The Tribunal will receive independent legal advice from around the world on the legal implications of factual findings they may make. The Tribunal will investigate what criminal offences, if any, have been committed by state or state-approved bodies / organisations / individuals in China that may have engaged in forced organ harvesting. Witnesses over the three days include Chinese refugees who have fled alleged persecution after being held in detention in China, medical professionals and investigators. The final day of the hearings lands on the 70th anniversary of International Human Rights Day. Findings will culminate in a final report to be released in 2019. The Tribunal was initiated by the International Coalition To End Transplant Abuse In China (ETAC), an international not for profit, non-government charitable organisation comprising of a coalition of lawyers, academics, ethicists, medical professionals, researchers and human rights advocates dedicated to ending forced organ harvesting in China. “The Tribunal is a warranted response to sustained and highly credible allegations concerning killing of prisoners of conscience for their organs in China. In order to address alleged crimes of this magnitude, the international community requires robust legal analysis concerning the liability of state or state-approved bodies/organisations in China that have engaged in forced organ harvesting. The Tribunal will provide this analysis, along with a transparent and permanent record of the evidence of forced organ harvesting.” Prof Wendy Rogers, Clinical Ethicist, Chair International Advisory Committee, ETAC.
 

johnq

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6 Things That Show China's Organ Harvesting Is Real
China has been harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, like Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs for years. It's a crime against humanity that should change US China relations forever. But sadly, media silence has helped the Chinese Communist Party carrying on forced organ harvesting for years. But thanks to the work of researchers like Ethan Gutmann, David Kilgour, and David Matas, as well as the China Tribunal led by Sir Geoffrey Nice, organ harvesting in China is being brought to light. This twisted aspect of the China economy must be stopped.
 

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The US punishes the Chinese officials for forced organ harvesting. The CCP's crimes are judged
US lawmakers submitted bills to punish officials involved in China's forced organ harvesting A group of US bipartisan lawmakers has submitted a bill in both houses of Congress to prevent the organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience supported by the Chinese state. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) Said in a statement: “There is growing evidence that the Chinese Communist Party has been and continues to be harvesting organs from prisoners and members of Chinese religious groups ”. The bill, known as the 2020 Forced Ending Organ Harvesting Act, proposes sanctions against individuals involved in forced organ harvesting and organ trafficking. The bill was submitted by Senator Tom Cotton in the Senate on December 15 (S.5016) and in the House of Representatives (HR8972) by Rep. Chris Smith (RN.J.) and Tom Suozzi (DN.Y) ).). "It's time Beijing needs to take responsibility for these atrocities," added Cotton.
 

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China's Shocking Military Secret REVEALED
For more than 15 years, Chinese military hospitals across China have kept a closely guarded secret. Doctors at private hospitals know about it, and even participate. But no one dares reveal it to the public.
 

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Forced Organ Harvesting from Uyghurs in China | Ethan Gutmann
This 1-hour presentation provides an overview of the current evidence of forced organ harvesting from Uyghurs and other persecuted groups in the East Turkestan/Xinjiang region.
 

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CCP's Forced Organ Harvesting: Interview with Rahima Mahmut & Former Surgeon Enver Tohti | Yet Again
Since the 1970s, the Chinese Communist Party (‘CCP’) has been taking organs from unconsenting prisoners in order to fuel a lucrative trade in organ transplantation. Evidence has emerged from the last two decades that, not only is CCP taking organs from prisoners without their consent after their death, but they are also actively murdering individuals for their organs. A number of investigations and reports have found that Falun Gong practitioners, a religious minority group, have been killed for their organs. It is strongly suspected that Uyghurs in Xinjiang are also victims of this abhorrent practise. Due to the fact that there are not any International Courts in which China can be tried, it has fallen upon the independent people’s China Tribunal of 2019 to inquire into forced organ harvesting in China. The China Tribunal of 2019 concluded that the millions of Uyghurs currently detained in ‘re-education’ camps are likely being used as a “bank of organs”. There is vast evidence, including the testimony of ex-surgeons, who themselves participated in live forced organ harvesting that suggests that these gross violations of human rights are ongoing. Yet Again's Madeleine Drury sat down with Enver Tohti, a former oncologist surgeon, who shared his first hand experiences of organ harvesting under the CCP, and Rahima Mahmut, a Uyghur activist who shared her thoughts on what we can do to help.
 

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Hard to Believe
56 MINUTES NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN It’s hard to believe that doctors would kill for profit. It’s even harder to believe that major media are not investigating. Watch this award-winning insight into why the world is ignoring China's mass-market sale of human organs. FILM SYNOPSIS IT’S HAPPENED BEFORE: Governments killing their own citizens for their political or spiritual beliefs. But it’s never happened like this. It’s happened so often that the world doesn’t always pay attention. But is economic influence the reason that this time it’s going largely unreported? It’s hard to believe that doctors would carve up innocent people so their organs could be sold. It’s even harder to believe that major media are not investigating. Yet it’s still happening today and leaving a rising volume of victims in its wake. Hard To Believe is a documentary that examines the issue of forced live organ harvesting from Chinese prisoners of conscience, and the response—or lack of it—around the world. Produced by Swoop Films, two-time Emmy Award-winning director/producer, Ken Stone, Irene Silber, Kay Rubacek and Swoop Films.
 

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The organs of members of marginalized groups detained in Chinese prison camps are being forcefully harvested — sometimes when patients are still alive, an international tribunal sitting in London has concluded.

Some of the more than 1.5 million detainees in Chinese prison camps are being killed for their organs to serve a booming transplant trade that is worth some $1 billion a year, concluded the China Tribunal, an independent body tasked with investigating organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in the authoritarian state.


“Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale,” the tribunal concluded in its final judgment Monday. The practice is “of unmatched wickedness — on a death for death basis — with the killings by mass crimes committed in the last century,” it added.

In 2014, state media reported that China would phase out the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners and said it would rely instead on a national organ donation system.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday was not immediately available to comment on the tribunal's findings.

In a statement released alongside the final judgment, the tribunal said many of those affected were practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that China banned in the 1990s and has called an “evil cult.” The tribunal added that it was possible that Uighur Muslims — an ethnic minority who are currently being detained in vast numbers in western China — were also being targeted.

The tribunal is chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, who worked as a prosecutor at the international tribunal for crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

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China wants to portray its vast Muslim detention camps as 'humane'
“Falun Gong practitioners have been one — and probably the main — source of organ supply,” the judgment read, while “the concerted persecution and medical testing of the Uyghurs is more recent,” using a different spelling of the minority group's name. It warned, however, that the scale of medical testing of the Uighur Muslims meant they could end up being used as an "organ bank."

The tribunal that delivered its judgment in London was initiated by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China — a not-for-profit coalition including lawyers, academics, human rights advocates and medical professionals.

Allegations of forced organ harvesting first came to light in 2001, after a boom in transplant activity was registered in China, with wait times becoming unusually short, the statement said. Chinese websites advertised hearts, lungs and kidneys for sale and available to book in advance, suggesting that the victims were killed on demand, it added.

On Monday, the tribunal concluded that there was “numerical evidence” of the “impossibility of there being anything like sufficient ‘eligible donors’ under the recently formed PRC [People’s Republic of China] voluntary donor scheme for that number of transplant operations.”

The tribunal added that witnesses, experts and investigators had told of how Falun Gong practitioners continued to be killed in order for their organs to be extracted. It added that forced organ harvesting was also being performed while victims are still alive, killing the person in the process.

The statement recalled how one witness, Dr. Enver Tohti, told of how as a surgeon in China he had been required to perform organ extractions. Referring to one instance in which he extracted an organ from a living patient, he said: “What I recall is with my scalpel, I tried to cut into his skin, there was blood to be seen. That indicates that the heart was still beating … At the same time, he was trying to resist my insertion, but he was too weak.”

Several survivors of prison camps told the tribunal of how they were subjected to physical examinations including blood tests, X-rays and ultrasounds, the statement said. “Experts report that the only reasonable explanation for these examinations was to ensure that victims’ organs were healthy and fit for transplantation,” it added. A healthy liver, for example, can reportedly be sold for some $160,000, according to the statement.

The tribunal concluded that it was "beyond reasonable doubt" that crimes against humanity had been committed against the Falun Gong and Uighur Muslims but that it could not prove that the killing of the Falun Gong amounted to genocide — because of the tribunal's inability to prove ‘intent’ to commit ‘genocide.’

In a statement accompanying the final judgment, the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China called on the international community to help bring an end to forced organ extraction.

“It is no longer a question of whether organ harvesting in China is happening, that dialogue is well and truly over. We need an urgent response to save these people’s lives,” Susie Hughes, executive director and co-founder of the coalition, said.
 

johnq

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Forced Organ Harvesting: “I’m going to China, they’re shooting my donor”
Health Europa Quarterly speaks to bioethicist Professor Wendy Rogers about forced organ harvesting and the ethical responsibilities of physicians and academics


Professor Wendy Rogers is the Professor in Clinical Ethics at Macquarie University, Australia; and Chair of the International Advisory Board for the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, a charitable NGO: a role for which she receives no remuneration.

In 2019 she was presented with the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Ethics Award and named one of the Nature journal’s top 10 people who matter in science, in recognition of her research-led campaign against forced organ harvesting; as well as appearing in Medscape’s 2019 Physicians of the Year. Rogers tells HEQ about the responsibility of physicians and academics to recognise and act against forced organ harvesting.

What do you know about the current situation regarding forced organ harvesting in China?

My understanding is that China is still performing a large number of transplants – far more than any official figures would indicate – and that vast [quantities of] organs are sourced from prisoners of conscience.

A lot of those prisoners are Falun Gong practitioners, who are still incarcerated in large numbers; but based on evidence that some women gave who have been incarcerated in the Uyghur prisons fairly recently, almost certainly people from the Uyghur community are being harvested as well.

What first drew your attention to the forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience in China?

I was watching the film Hard to Believe [a 2016 documentary investigating forced organ harvesting in China], which was produced by Kay Rubacek and directed by Ken Stone. It presents itself as a mystery: all these transplants are happening in China, where could all the organs be coming from? It’s a very compelling documentary, and I saw it and I thought: goodness. I hadn’t really been aware of the nature of the allegations of what was happening in China.

So, then I bought [investigative writer] Ethan Gutmann’s book [The slaughter: mass killings, organ harvesting, and China’s secret solution to its dissident problem] and the 2006 book by David Matas and David Kilgour [Bloody Harvest]; and I read those books.

The more I looked into it, the more I found that there was a lot of evidence that organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience does occur and the Chinese provided no evidence that would reassure you that things are happening ethically there.

The China Tribunal determined that what’s going on right now is a crime against humanity against Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghur Muslims; but that the requirement for intent had not been sufficiently proven to officially declare genocide. Do you think that genocide has been or is being committed?

I think there’s a distinction between the technical definition of genocide in the [United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide] and people’s lay understanding. I think there is no doubt that when the persecution of the Falun Gong started in 1999, there was an absolute determination to destroy the practice of Falun Gong; and given that many of the practitioners wouldn’t give it up, it meant destroying them. I think that was the primary intent of the persecution when it first started, and then they realised how valuable the organs were inside these prisoners.

If we think about genocide, there has to be the intent to wipe out the victim group. I think that at a government level in China that intent does exist, because they set up the 610 Office [a government security agency], which was basically charged with stamping out the practice of Falun Gong, including killing the practitioners if necessary.

That was the overarching policy which sanctioned all the actions against Falun Gong practitioners; but if you get down to the level of killing individuals, the people actually doing the killing do not necessarily have the intent to exterminate Falun Gong practitioners; they want to make money [from their organs]. I don’t know if the legal definition of genocide can incorporate both the level of ‘we need to exterminate them all’ and the motive behind each individual killing.

You helped to develop the National Health and Medical Research Council’s guidelines for organ and tissue donation: how are organ recipients slipping through the cracks in international law and ethical guidelines? Do you think that surgeons are aware of this happening?

The National Health and Medical Research Council only has jurisdiction within Australia, so the ethical guidelines [only cover] the donation of organs by people living in Australia at the time they donate and the transplantation of those organs into other people living in Australia at the time.

Those guidelines can’t cover what happens outside Australia; but what we do know, from anecdotal evidence and the odd media report and surgeons that have contacted me off the record, is that patients are going overseas to transplant [a report published in October 2019 indicated that more than two thirds of the 540 physicians surveyed had travelled overseas to support patients undergoing transplants at least once].

Have the physicians who oversee the aftercare of these patients ever come across cases where they have questioned the source of the organ?

Anecdotally, I know of one [doctor] who was not happy to look after a patient who came back because she felt that the patient had engaged in organ trafficking to get a transplant; and the doctor just withdrew from that patient’s care and handed her on to someone else.

There’s a strong feeling in the medical profession that you can’t withhold care from a person that needs it, no matter what they’ve done; so even if they come back and you know that they’ve bought a trafficked organ, or even worse, an organ that someone was killed for, they’re still a patient. They still need medical care, so the doctors say ‘it’s not our business, we’re not police. It’s not up to us to do anything about where people got their organs, we just have to look after our patient.’

The surgeons conducting the transplants must know to some degree that the organs they using are not ethically sourced. Do they only know the source is somehow questionable, or do they know exactly where the organ is from and choose to turn a blind eye?

It is completely normalised. There has been such a programme of brutalisation against the Falun Gong practitioners, and now against the Uyghurs, that they’re not really considered human, they’re considered enemies of the state. [The prevailing sentiment is that] this is the best thing that could happen, that they’re actually doing some good by being killed and giving their liver to someone else. So [the surgeons] know where they come from, but they don’t think it’s wrong.

In terms of the patients that are going to China from other countries to receive these harvested organs, do you think that they know?

I think some of them would know. There was an article in the media in Australia a couple of years ago now where a [patient] said: ‘I’m going to China, they’re shooting my donor next week’. She clearly knew what was going on [but] she was convinced that the donor was a mass murderer or something, so they deserved the death penalty.

Whether they know that it’s innocent people being killed, I don’t know; but from what people have said, from the interviews that have been reported in the Matas and Kilgour book, the way that transplants happen in China you feel like you are involved in something pretty underhand. I don’t think it feels ethically robust, or like you’re doing a good thing.

You had a paper published in the BMJ Open criticising the degree to which the transplant research community fails to examine thoroughly the provenance of organs used in Chinese transplants. Do you think that wider and more investigative academic reporting could act as a deterrent?

I think so. In that paper we listed 445 papers that we felt should be retracted; and I just found out that PLOS ONE, which is quite a major general medical journal, has retracted five papers which we identified, so I’m really pleased about that [since this interview was conducted PLOS ONE and the Transplantation journal have retracted a total 27 papers].

The transplant community has been a bit asleep behind the wheel on this, there wasn’t enough scrutiny of papers being published. The problem is that at least some of the Chinese [academic paper] authors lie. We have been able to catch them out: they’ve written in one paper that no organs from executed prisoners were used, but this was a time when there was no volunteer donor scheme; so that clearly couldn’t be true.

In general, we expect scientists to be truthful and honest, so when it’s written in a Chinese paper that the organs came from volunteers, reviewers just think that sounds right without actually doing the checking to [be able to] say they didn’t have any volunteers at the time this research was done; so it couldn’t be ethical.

What do you think academic reporters could do better?

[They should] be more aware of how organs are being procured in China and be more willing to challenge the authors: for each of the 26 retractions so far by journals, they’ve written [an update] about contacting the authors and the authors not responding or protesting. Once the journals start pushing back against the authors, the authors can’t actually defend the claims that they’ve made; and so then it’s easy to reject the paper.

Is there anything else that you think our readers should know?

It’s so horrendous that it’s really hard to take it in: it’s easier to say it couldn’t possibly be happening, but readers just need to come to it with an open mind and read some of the materials. There’s a lot of material on the China Tribunal website; there’s a lot of materials on the End Transplant Abuse in China website; there’s a lot of materials on the Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting website.

If people actually look at that material then they can understand what’s actually happening, and they should know that it is not at all safe to go to China for a transplant because it is absolutely likely that the organ you get will come from someone [who has been] killed to give you that organ. So, they certainly shouldn’t think about doing that at all.
 

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