NWV News - China's forced organ harvesting may be duplicated in the U.S.

CHINA'S FORCED ORGAN HARVESTING MAY BE DUPLICATED IN THE U.S.

By NWV News Writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
September 26, 2013
© 2013 NewsWithViews.com

In a country where human rights are practically non-existent, the Chinese telling the world that its organ donations are voluntary lacks transparency and organ harvesting from executed prisoners continues, officials from the non-partisan, human rights group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) said on Monday. And there are those who predict Obamacare may seek to duplicate China's big government-run healthcare.

Beijing claims that it will introduce the China Organ Transplant Response System (COTRS), a computerized organ-allocation system, but according to DAFOH, the Chinese system lacks the necessary transparency to prevent abuses and widespread inhuman treatment of its large incarcerated population.

DAFOH officials allege that the organ matching processes used by China's healthcare system and information regarding organ donors are not public information and not available to third parties in COTRS.

For example, the announced deadline for the actual phasing out of organ harvesting from executed prisoners is vague. The Chinese government speaks of 2015 but it also admits that the practice of involuntary harvesting may continue indefinitely.

"Some Chinese officials only speak of ending the "reliance" on prisoners' organs but remain unspecific on the date of complete cessation," say officials with the DAFOH.

As far back as 2007, the government-controlled Chinese Medical Association (CMA) pledged to the World Medical Association (WMA) it would end forced organ harvesting from executed prison inmates. But, six years later, "the pledge remains unfulfilled and has even reversed course, as China refers only to "phasing out," not ending the practice," claims the DAFOH.

Besides China's convicted prisoners sentenced to death, prisoners of conscience -- primarily practitioners of Falun Gong -- are subject to forced organ harvesting. Falun Gong is an advanced practice of Buddha school self-cultivation, founded by Li Hongzhi, the practice’s master.

It is alleged that Falun Gong practitioners are victims of live organ harvesting throughout China. The allegation is that organ harvesting is inflicted on unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations, pursuant to a systematic policy, in large numbers, according to a 2007 investigation by David Matas, Esq. and Hon. David Kilgour, Esq.

The allegation is that the organs are harvested from the practitioners while they are still alive. The practitioners are killed in the course of the organ harvesting operations or immediately thereafter. These operations are a form of murder, according to Matas and Kilgour's report.

"Finally, we are told that the practitioners killed in this way are then cremated. There is no corpse left to examine to identify as the source of an organ transplant," they stated in their report.

Summarizing their investigation, Matas and Kilgour stated:

"We have concluded that the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular hospitals but also detention centres and 'people's courts', since 1999 have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Their vital organs, including kidneys, livers, corneas and hearts, were seized involuntarily for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries."

According to DAFOH, the China Daily reported in 2006 that the number of transplants in China was about 20,000, with 90 percent of the organs coming from executed prisoners. Pressure and attention from the international community in the past few years has contributed to recent developments and this indicates that the international community needs to continue efforts to call for an end of the organ harvesting abuse.

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Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting states that calling for an immediate end of the killing for organs is the only correct response to prevent a secret continuation of the forced organ harvesting. From the perpetrator's perspective "phasing out" the current practice might be the preferred choice, however from the victim's side it is gruesome and horrific every day it continues.