Annex 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY—ORGAN
HARVESTING IN
CHINA
China's history of organ harvesting from prisoners
In 1993, Amnesty International reported
organ harvesting from prisoners on a widespread scale. In 1994,
Human Rights Watch also provided compelling evidence which included
text of a government decree on the subject. [1]
In 1998, the European Parliament passed a resolution
condemning the sale of organs of executed Chinese prisoners. In
2001 a Chinese doctor, Wang Guoqi, testified before the US House
of Representatives Subcommittee on Human Rights, where he described
co-ordinated procedures between surgeons and Chinese government
officials to extract prisoners' organs immediately after executions
which were "intentionally botched" so as to not damage
the organs. [2]
In 2005, The Times reported that although
China has denied for many years that organ harvesting of prisoners
as a trade exists, Huang Jiefu, the Deputy Health Minister, acknowledged
that the practice is indeed widespread. The article explains the
main reason for using prisoners: "The supply of organs in
China is severely restricted because of religious traditions that
require the body to be whole when it enters the afterlife."
[3]
Faced with the accumulating evidence and numerous
media reports, on 19 April 2006 the British Transplantation Society
(BTS) publicly condemned the practice of extracting organs from
executed prisoners without consent as an "unacceptable"
human rights violation.
Why Falun Gong prisoners of conscience are particularly
vulnerable
In 1998, the Chinese Communist regime's survey
found 70-100 million people were practising Falun Gong, a peaceful
meditation practice of the Buddhist school. Feeling threatened
by such a large group that was not under his control, the leader
of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned Falun Gong in 1999
giving the direct order to "Destroy their reputation, bankrupt
them financially and annihilate them physically." [4]
Since the ban, these tens of millions of people
have been placed outside the protection of the law in China. They
are refused education and social support, fired from their jobs,
imprisoned without trial, and are tortured in forced labour camps,
where deaths of Falun Gong practitioners "count as suicide".
Many practitioners who were arrested often refuse to disclose
their names and personal details for fear of implicating their
families, friends and colleagues.
These situations make Falun Gong practitioners
particularly vulnerable, since the regime can remove their organs
without being held accountable for their actions. Victims' family
members have no way of knowing what is happening to them and when
it is too late, no legal recourse afterwards.
Recent information of organ harvesting from Falun
Gong practitioners
In March 2006, The World Organization to Investigate
the Persecution of Falun Gong WOIPFG) confirmed through its investigations
that hospitals and transplant centres in hina claim to use organs
taken from live Falun Gong practitioners for transplants. [5]
In April, 2006, The Weekly Standard interviewed
the wife of a Chinese surgeon who claims to have performed many
organ removals from Falun Gong practitioners, "he and the
other doctors—some hired from the outside, each with a speciality,
all constantly on call would come in and remove the patient's
kidneys, skin tissue, corneas, and other organs, seemingly to
order." [6]
The same woman told The Epoch Times that
her husband "often had terrible nightmares at night and woke
up shrieking and terrified." He eventually disclosed to her
that he regularly removed organs from Falun Gong practitioners,
many of whom were still alive. Organs extracted from live persons
are known to fetch higher prices. [7]
The scale of the problem
The true number of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners
is not known. In December 2002, The Economist reported
that in the labour camp it visited 28% of the incarcerated were
practitioners of Falun Gong. Even if one accepts the Chinese official
total labour camp population of 260,000, which is widely believed
to be a serious underestimate, there would be 70,000 practitioners
incarcerated at that given moment. The total number over the past
seven years would be many times higher. According to the UN Special
Rapporteur on the subject of torture and detention, his 2005 report
raised the concern that "reports of arrests, detention .
. . in particular Falun Gong practitioners, are increasing".
[8]
According to the Communist regime's official
statistics, there were only 78 liver transplants in China during
the eight years between 1991 and 1998. Since the regime started
to suppress Falun Gong in 1999, the number of liver transplants
rocketed from 118 in 1999 to over 3000 in 2003 [9]. This sharp
rise during the time of a major suppression campaign may not be
a pure coincidence.
Investigations
On 8 May 2006, Canada's former Secretary of
State (Asia Pacific) David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David
Matas launched an investigation into allegations of organ harvesting
from live Falun Gong practitioners. Their plan includes going
to China. The Chairman of the British Transplantation Society
Ethics Committee, Dr Stephen igmore, recently called for an investigation
by the United Nations and the World Health Organization on this
issue.
An online petition in support of calls for investigations
into organ harvesting in China together with additional information
can be found at: http://petition.fofg.org.uk/organharvesting/
[1] http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa170032004
[2] http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/06/28/china.organ/
[3] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-1901558,00.html
[4] http://www.faluninfo.net
[5] http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/
[6]http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/160ymogj.asp?pg=1
[7] http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-4-17/40496.html
[8] UN report E/CN.4/2005/62/Add.1
[9] http://eng.soundofhope.org/article.aspx?catID=465&newsID=36652
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