Organ Harvesting Affects All, Says Panel

BERLIN—A medical advocacy group held a conference in Berlin on July 18 drawing attention to the abuse of organ transplantation by Chinese authorities. Their conference was timed to coincide with The Transplantation Society’s own annual conference, which attracts thousands of surgeons each year, held nearby.

The non-profit Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) hosted the panel. Experts discussed illegal and unethical organ procurement practices taking place primarily in China.

“We need to take stand before our own ethical principles disintegrate,” said Dr. Harold King, a member of DAFOH and physician, highlighting the ethical dilemma faced by the medical profession.

DAFOH is an international organization founded by medical doctors of various specialties, based in Washington, D.C. The group’s goal is to stop the practices of illegal organ harvesting in China and other countries. 

Arne Schwarz, an independent researcher based in Switzerland and an expert on illegal transplant practices, said that organ transplantation is treated as a state secret in China, which means researchers have to collect their own evidence on the practices. 

Chinese authorities as early as 2005 admitted that 90 to 95 percent of organs are derived from executed prisoners, a highly controversial practice. While the exact figures are not fully known, China executes not only the highest number of people but also carries out most of organ transplants of any country in the world.

For Schwarz, the “ethical credibility of the international transplant community is at stake, if it does not make an visible and collective effort to stop this.”

As a speaker of the panel, Dr. Harold King, called illegal organ harvesting a “terrible contradiction to fundamentals of medicine … which is to save lives and improve the wellbeing of all.” Dr. King is a physician from France.

King pointed out that China is the only country in the world where almost every kind of organ for every blood type can be attained within two weeks; they even a guarantee of a fast replacement if necessary.

He is convinced that since 2001, not only death convicts are used, but that most organs have been coming from prisoners of conscience, who are not tried by any court and are not convicted. The vast majority are Falun Gong practitioners who are arbitrarily arrested. Many are tortured to death. They are considered especially healthy and are at the disposable of the state, held in hundred of thousands in labor camps.

“The official version [of the Chinese regime] simply cannot stand,” said King, since the number of transplantations every year largely exceeds the number of executions. 

“These profound consequences affect us all,” King said.

That the use of organs of prisoners of conscience is not only speculation was first shown by David Matas, an internationally renowned human rights lawyer based in Canada, who also spoke a the panel. 

Together with the former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour, he conducted the first independent investigation looking into the allegations of widespread and organized organ harvesting on Falun Gong practitioners. The 2006 report, which later became a book, entitled “Bloody Harvest,” confirmed these allegations.

Recently, Matas has co-edited a new book called “State Organs,” which is a collaboration of 12 authors, presenting the latest findings.

For him, the practice of illegal organ harvesting originates in the “intersection of hatred and greed.” 

He suggests not referring any patients abroad and not training Chinese surgeons in Western hospitals. Additionally, Chinese doctors who cannot guarantee that they are operating on prisoners should be rejected by their peers; their research should also be kept out of international conferences, he argued. 

Change in the medical profession is possible, as demonstrated by Dr. Jacob Lavee. Lavee is a heart transplant surgeon from Israel and member of DAFOH‘s Advisory Board. He was not part of the panel, but spoke later.

Largely due to his tirelessly spreading the word about illegal practices in China, the Israel parliament passed an unprecedented law worldwide. It bans any form of organ tourism and, more significantly, prevents Israeli insurance companies from reimbursing any kind of transplant abroad. 

Ethan Gutmann, adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, based in Washington, D.C., is an expert on human rights issues in China. He is author of the award-winning book “Losing the New China.”

Gutmann has conducted more than 30 interviews with witnesses who have been directly or indirectly involved in illegal organ harvesting in China, what he calls “a crime against all humanity.” 

A respected Taiwanese surgeon for example told Gutmann “with no small measure of angst” that his patients have been receiving organs from Falun Gong practitioners on the mainland. 

Even though there are signs for that the harvesting peaked in 2006, he does not see an end to this criminal practice. He has calculated that at least 65,000 Falun Gong had been killed for their organs by 2008.

Gutmann was the first to provide evidence that besides Falun Gong Tibetans and Uighurs, as well as Christian groups, have fallen victim to state-organized killing for organs.

He mentions that in November of last year the Chinese authorities announced to end organ harvesting from executed prisoners in three to four years, while not mentioning political prisoners at all.

Gutmann interpret this development as the attempt of the Chinese authorities to “bury every remaining evidence … in history.” 

The Chinese regime’s move is driven by fear that the “party’s historic crime will be laid bare before the world … and might taint the leadership transition.”

For Gutmann “only the victims families have the right to absolve China of it.”

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