Several politicians from around the world on Sept. 19 took turns at a summit condemning the CCP’s (Chinese Communist Party) continued practice of killing prisoners of conscience to supply organs for its lucrative transplant market.
“Organ donation is a precious act of saving a life, but forced organ harvesting is commercialized murder and without doubt, among the worst of crimes,” said Lord Philip Hunt, a member of the UK Parliament and a former British health minister.
Hunt made the remarks at the third webinar of the World Summit on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting. The summit, organized by five NGOs including advocacy group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), began on Sept. 17 and will run through Sept. 26.
“I hope this event inspires many around the world to take positive action against this crime,” Hunt said.
China has been one of the favored destinations for people in need of organ transplants, due to the speed at which Chinese hospitals can find a matching organ—sometimes in only days or weeks. Beijing’s explanation for its seemingly ample supply of organs has been that it has a voluntary organ donation system with many registered organ donors in China.
The CCP’s narrative was debunked in 2019 when an independent London-based tribunal, after a year-long investigation, revealed that state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting has taken place in China for years “on a significant scale.”
What’s more, the tribunal stated it was “certain” that organs were sourced from imprisoned Falun Gong adherents and that they were “probably the principal source.”
Adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice also known as Falun Dafa, have been targets of persecution by the Chinese regime since July 1999. Allegations of forced organ harvesting from detained Falun Gong adherents first emerged in 2006.
Hunt pointed to his effort to push forward new UK legislation, named the Organ Tourism and Cadavers on Display Bill, which he said would ensure that UK citizens “cannot travel to countries such as China for organ transplantation.”
He said the bill would also “protect UK citizens from complicity in forced organ harvesting.”
“My hope that it [the bill] acts as a precedent for further action, both in this country [the UK] and around the world,” Hunt said.
By Frank Fang
