Two international medical ethics groups have launched a petition calling on the G7 and several other countries to take action against the Chinese Communist regime’s crimes of forced organ harvesting from living prisoners of conscience, particularly Falun Gong practitioners, New York City-based NTD reported citing the Epoch Times.
Washington-based medical ethnic groups Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) and the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC) said in a statement earlier this week that their petition is aimed at breaking through “the great wall of silence built by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) around the atrocity of FOH (forced organ harvesting).”
According to the statement, forced organ harvesting (FOH) is a form of organ trafficking that is being perpetrated by the Chinese state against living, innocent people imprisoned for their faith or ethnicity, to supply its expanding organ transplant business.
The petition calls upon the G7 governments, and Argentina, Australia, India, Israel, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan, to “issue a joint declaration condemning China’s practice of forced organ harvesting, calling for its immediate end, and to implement an intergovernmental action plan.”
For the last 25 years, adherents of the meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance — numbering up to 100 million in 1999 according to estimates at the time — have faced lengthy imprisonment, torture, forced labour, and forced organ harvesting by the Chinese authorities, according to reports.
Right from its launch in several countries worldwide, the petition was supported by over 20 human rights organizations, as claimed by the medical ethnic groups.
“This petition is not only a wakeup call for the leaders of the G7 states, it is an opportunity for all people around the globe to take a meaningful stance and to clearly position themselves against this unprecedented human rights violation,” the statement read.
DAFOH’s Executive Director Torsten Trey said, “After more than two decades of killing Falun Gong practitioners for organs in an unrelenting genocide by attrition, we are faced with an urgent matter of conscience: will we remain silent and embolden the perpetrator in Beijing, or will we take a courageous stand and say firmly that no human being should be killed for his or her organs, and no country, including China, should be allowed to get away with this crime against humanity.”
“For human dignity to prevail in this world, we must stop forced organ harvesting now,” Trey stated.
The petition calls for investigations “to determine accountability for any acts contrary to the provisions of the Genocide Convention committed against Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs and others in the PRC.”
Chair of ETAC’s International Advisory Board, Wendy Rogers, commented, “The world must stop turning a blind eye to the crimes against humanity occurring in China.”
“Innocent prisoners of conscience have been, and continue to be, killed for their organs to be used for transplantation,” Rogers added. “The G7 have the chance to show leadership on this issue; I urge them to act.”
Evidence accumulated over the past 18 years establishes that forced organ harvesting in China exists and is of concern to the international community, yet governments are failing to respond, as per the statement released by the US-based medical groups.
Earlier in 2020, the China Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal chaired by human rights barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, concluded “beyond reasonable doubt” that China has been forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience for many years.
The Tribunal also found that “Falun Gong practitioners have been one – and probably the main – source of organ supply” and that these crimes amount to crimes against humanity, according to reports.
Later in 2021, at least 12 United Nations Special Rapporteurs and human rights experts sent a formal communication regarding forced organ harvesting to the Chinese Government in response to credible information that Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans and Christians are killed for their organs in China, as per reports.
The British Medical Association and Canadian Medical Association, in 2023, supported the launch of a ground-breaking legal advisory and policy guidance published by international law firm, Global Rights Compliance (GRC), that outlines the business and human rights due diligence obligations and complicity risks of interacting with countries where organ trafficking is known to take place.
The advisory highlights China as a high-risk country due to the evidence that forced organ harvesting is taking place, according to reports.
The medical groups, in their statement, said that Texas-based International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) released a policy statement banning Chinese transplant surgeons from presenting at its conferences and publishing in the ISHLT journal.
Arizona-headquartered Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), in 2023, recognized in an official statement that there was “overwhelming evidence” that “Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Christians and others” have been incarcerated and subjected to forced organ harvesting.
In their petition, DAFOH and ETAC have described Beijing’s practice of forced organ harvesting as a “cold” genocide against Falun Gong, as the Chinese Communist regime has been using forced organ harvesting to slowly and covertly eliminate the group and its practice of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, while garnering a massive profit from organ sales in the process.
Alleging that insufficient action by the international community has allowed these crimes to continue and be perpetrated against the Uyghur population as well in recent years, the medical ethnic groups mentioned in their newly launched petition: “The unethical or criminal medical practices of one country threaten the ethical standards of medicine worldwide. A direct, decisive response from the international community is urgently required to stop this barbaric crime.”
Freedom United stated that despite the clear evidence of organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting, ‘tourists’ continue to go abroad for organ transplants where the source of the organ cannot be verified, and in fact, research suggests that 28 percent of organ transplants in China go to foreigners.
Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), which is a modern qigong discipline combining slow-moving exercises and meditation with a moral philosophy, has been the subject of a relentless campaign in communist China designed to eradicate the faith.
For the last 25 years, adherents of the meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance — numbering up to 100 million in 1999 according to estimates at the time — have faced lengthy imprisonment, torture, forced labour, and forced organ harvesting by the Chinese authorities, according to reports.
As per US-based anti-slavery organization Freedom United, in China, minorities rounded up by government crackdowns – political prisoners, ethnic Uyghurs, and Falun Gong practitioners — are known to be victims of forced organ harvesting.
An international people’s tribunal in London found that some of China’s 1.5 million detainees in prison camps have been killed for the state-sanctioned organ transplant trade worth over $1 billion, Freedom United stated.
An academic research analysis of organ donation data in China uncovered “highly compelling evidences are being falsified” and that tracking the sources of organs in the country remains difficult, according to the organization.
Freedom United stated that despite the clear evidence of organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting, ‘tourists’ continue to go abroad for organ transplants where the source of the organ cannot be verified, and in fact, research suggests that 28 percent of organ transplants in China go to foreigners.
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