A report released by former Canadian lawmaker David Kilgour, human rights lawyer David Matas, and journalist Ethan Gutmann has revealed that the Chinese government is secretly executing Chinese prisoners, religious and ethnic minorities and practitioners of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and harvesting their organs for use in transplant operations.
[revad1]
The Chinese government claims that the total number of legal transplants is approximately 10,000 each year. However, the report shows that approximately 60,000 to 100,000 organs are transplanted every years in Chinese hospital. Matas commented on the discrepancy in the report by stating:
“The (Communist Party) says the total number of legal transplants is about 10,000 per year. But we can easily surpass the official Chinese figure just by looking at the two or three biggest hospitals,”
The report claims that the gap is “made up” by executing prisoners that have been arrested for their religious or political beliefs. China claims that, while they have relied on prisoner organs in the past, they have shifted gears and created the “largest voluntary organ donation system in Asia” which has supplied them with an ample amount of organs.
The authors point to official Chinese data that show only 2,766 volunteers donated organs in 2015, which resulted in 7,785 organs being harvested. The government’s official records claim that there are approximately 10,000 transplant operations carried out each year. Again, the report claims these numbers are inaccurate. The top three hospitals in China perform more than 10,000 transplants each year alone. There are also more than 100 other hospitals in China that carry out organ transplants. The authors claim the actual number of transplants could be thousands of time larger than reported by the Chinese government.
The report claims this gap is filled by executing Falun Gong practitioners while in police custody. In 1999 the Chinese government declared the religion a cult and have detained tens of thousands of it’s followers for what they claim to be “anti-China political activities.”
According to the report Falun Gong followers were subject to non-consensual blood tests to determine their eligibility as donors. This information was then entered into a massive database to match their organs with potential suitors.
In 2005 the Chinese government admitted to harvesting organs from prisoners and claimed they were working to reform the practice. After five years of “reform” it was found that over 90% of all organs used for transplants were still coming from deceased prisoners. This information, coupled with the fact that China executes more prisoners that he rest of the entire planet put together, lead the authors to believe the practice has not been “reformed” as promised.
[revad2]
