Ten questions that raise doubts about the claims of forced organ harvesting in Human Harvest

I saw bits of the film Human Harvest by Leon Lee last night on SBS Dateline. It seemed like fairly blatant Farlun Gong propaganda, and disappointingly there was little questioning of the claims or those who were making them. I'm no apologist for the Chinese government and you can read my previous reporting on the problems with illegal and unethical organ transplantation in China here. However, I think the FarlunGong claims made in the Human Harvest program are more to do with political propaganda and the agenda of the cult rather than reality of organ transplantation in China.

Haven't had time to do a full article on this, but here are some of my nagging doubts raised by this issue:

1. The claims about an Auschwitz-like camp in which 4000 FarlunGong supporters were murdered for their organs have never been supported by any evidence.

2. Claims that widespread forced organ harvesting had taken place in Liaoning were investigated by on-the-spot visits to the prison and refuted by reputable labour camp survivor and campaigners Harry Wu of the Laogai Foundation

3. Why have the Farlun Gong claims not been supported or taken up by reputable human rights organisations such as Amnesty International or Human Rights in China or reputable medical groups such as The Transplantation Society?

4. Why have claims not been accepted by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, who sent personal rapporteurs to China to investigate?

5. Why there no independent evidence and no allegations from people or medical staff not connected with Farlun Gong?

6. China has a prison population of 2 million – if it was such a lucrative trade, why would forced organ harvesting only be targeted on a tiny group such as Farlun Gong?

7. Why did Farlun Gong only start making these claims in 2006 despite organ harvesting being apparently widespread since the 1980s

8. Those making claims about forced organ harvesting belong to Neocon think tanks such as “the Foundation for Defense of Democracies” who have previously been accused of peddling "alarmist rhetoric and fear mongering".

9. Why has Farlun Gong put a block on the Wikipedia page relating to their claims on organ harvesting?

10. What has been the role of Farlun Gong cult founder Li Hongzhi in these claims – what is his background in the Party and his agenda in opposing former PRC leader Jiang Zemin?

Wuhan medical staff on trial for organ trafficking

by Michael Woodhead
A gang of 12 organ traffickers including surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses on on trial in Wuhan accused of selling organs for up to 360,000 yuan ($58,000).
In a case know as the "undergound kidney trafficking network" the 12 are accused of buying and selling kidneys in a million-yuan scheme scheme in which donors were paid 30,000 yuan ($5000). According to the Anhui News, the gang performed six commercial organ transplant operations between 2012 and 2013, for which they charged between 170,000 and 360,000 yuan ($27,000-58,000), which was divided up between the participants. The gang included a surgeon called Dr Chen, an anaesthetist Dr Peng, an assistant surgeon Dr Yao, two surgical nurses, and two follow-up nurses. There was also a group of 'fixers and 'agents who bought medical equipment and drugs and who set up the deals and arranged premises in the Jiangxia district in which to perform the illegal operations.  Other gang members arranged transport and liaised between medical staff and buyers and sellers. Eleven members of the gang have already pleaded guilty to the offences. The ringleaders of the gang were an agent called Deng and Dr Chen. Deng set up the deals through the internet, making contact with people looking for an organ and also contacting people who were willing to sell one of their kidneys. Deng said he received 34,000 yuan ($5500) for each deal. One donor in the court said he could now put his heart at rest. he said he greatly regretted his disastrous decision to sell one of his kidneys when he was deeply in debt. now he said he was easily tired and had lost all his strength after the operation.
Xinhua report does not say at which hospital the doctors worked or who the buyers of the organs were, nor what the outcomes of illegal organ transplant surgery were.

Chinese leaders affirm commitment to Hangzhou Resolution on ethical organ donation and transplantation

by Michael Woodhead
Chinese health officials and hospital leaders have committed to upholding the new ethical framework for organ donation and transplantation as outlined in the recently signed Hangzhou Resolution.
In a update statement, officials and transplant surgeons affirmed the new five point plan that will outlaw practices such as use of organs from executed prisoners and the 'sale' of organs to foreign buyers.
The new statement also includes a list of 38 Chinese transplant centres that have already confirmed  to have stopped using organs from prisoners, with others "anticipated in the days ahead".
The statement published in Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Diseases International is co-authored by China's leading transplant specialist Professor Huang Jiefu  and international transplant specialists including Dr Francis Delmonico, President of the Transplantation Society.
It notes that the Hangzhou Declaration commits China to adopting  a new organ transplantation system overseen by the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) and the Red Cross. The new system will set up a national voluntary organ donation scheme and a new organ procurement and allocation system that is based on clinical needs and which is "open and transparent". China will set up a human organ transplant clinical network based on 169 authorised transplant centres, an organ registry system and an organ donation regulatory system.
"The NHFPC expressed the resolution of the government of China that the dependence upon organs from executed prisoners must be terminated. The government of China has affirmed its commitment to prohibit transplant tourism and to shut down organ trafficking and transplant commercialism," the statement says.
The move to the new organ donation system will also mean that China is no longer the subject of an academic boycott on organ transplantation.
Health minister Li Bin also pledged her commitment "to bring China back to the international community and to promote an academic exchange based upon the five-point NHFPC plan elaborated."
The next step will be to implement the agreement in all China's provinces. The statement says China will also host a meeting this year with leaders of the major international transplantation societies and WHO representatives.
"The meeting will affirm the new resolution in the practice of organ donation and transplantation in China. The meeting will be a milestone for China transplant professionals to practice according to the international standards set by WHO Guiding Principles."
Meanwhile, in a public show of support for the new organ transplant system, senior Chinese leaders have registered to donate their organs.
Officials including Chen Zhu, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and a former minister of health; and Hua Jianmin, head of the Red Cross Society of China added their names to the new online organ registry at the Beijing Union Medical College Hospital .
The registry, overseen by the society's China Organ Donation Administrative Center, is available for people aged 18 and over who are willing to be organ donors after their death.
In December, the State Council issued a guideline related to funeral reform, encouraging Party members and officials to register to donate their organs after their death, according to China Daily.

International transplant specialists call on Xi Jinping to end corruption in China's organ transplant system

by Michael Woodhead
The international professional group representing organ transplant specialists has written an open letter to Xi Jinping, urging him to take personal action against ongoing corruption in the organ transplant system in China. 
A group of eminent surgeons belonging to the Transplantation Society have written a strongly-worded letter to the Chinese president, saying the latest government moves to overhaul China organ transplant system are not working, with some Chinese hospitals continuing to openly advertise the sale of organs from executed prisoners to private buyers.
Dr Francis Delmonico and seven colleagues say Chinese transplant surgeons have been the subject of a long-running embargo in international academic circles because of their country's practice of selling organs taken from executed prisoners. The Transplantation Society says it welcomed China's latest moves to ban these unethical practices, and the implementation of a new ethical system of organ donation and transplantation based on clinical need. However, the group says the new system is already looking to be a sham and the rules against organ trading a "paper tiger" because of ongoing commercial trading or organs by some Chinese hospitals. Their letter cites the example of a liver transplant for a Saudi teenage girl recently done for a price of $200,000 by a Tianjin hospital. The transplant turned out to be wholly unsuitable because the liver was scarred and diseased and the girl died. The transplant was illegal unethical and should never have been done, but the Tianjin hospital that did it is still advertising organs for international buyers at www.cntransplant.com. The Transplantation Society doctors say this is just one example of how unaccountable and corrupt the organ transplantation system continues to be in China. They also note that many of the Chinese doctors and officials involved in corrupt organ trading in the old system have already taken up positions of responsibility in the new system.
"These centers are both jeopardizing the public trust at home and tarnishing China’s reputation on the international stage," they write.
"Thus, we ask the Chinese government for an immediate and sustained resolve, to monitor compliance by Chinese professionals in performing organ donation and transplantation in accordance with NHFPC and international standards. The fledgling national organ allocation computer system that has been developed must be authorized as the sole distributor of organs to ensure transparency and fairness. Otherwise, the perception will be that one corrupt system of organ donation in China has simply been replaced by another," they conclude.

New organ transplant network launched, transplants for foreigners banned

by Michael Woodhead
China's leading organ transplant specialist Professor Huang Jiefu has launched a new national network of  Organ Procurment Organisations to try clean up the organ transplant system in China.
Professor Huang also launched a new national voluntary organ donation registry, in a bid to move away from the corrupt 'organs for sale' system that has operated in the past.
Under the new system, organs will be assigned according to clinical need rather than according to payment or connections, and there will be severe penalties for doctors and transplant clinics that are found to be flouting the rules.
At an official launch by the National Health and Family Planning Commission in Beijing attended by representatives from WHO and the Red Cross, Professor Huang said that about 160 hospitals had now been approved to carry out organ transplants. In the past about 600 clinics had offered transplants for money, but under the new system any clinic that operates outside the official donor network will lose its license and doctors will be suspended. There is a ban on private organ donations for money and also a ban on procuring and giving organs from Chinese to foreigners.
However, Professor Huang said some provinces had been slow to join the new network and to play an active role in the new organ donor sharing system. He urged them to work more closely with the new system, noting that there were about 30,000 critically ill people in China who urgently needed an organ transplant. He also encouraged Chinese people to sign up for the new national organ donor registry, saying it was possible to amend or withdraw from the scheme at any time.

Hangzhou Resolution commits China to ethical organ donation

Just a month ago, Xia Qiang, a surgeon from Shanghai Renji Hospital, and his team made history by completing the first two transplant operations using organs donated by residents in the city.
Such operations are taking place with increasing frequency across China, showing a determination to move from sourcing organs from executed prisoners to acquiring organs from citizens willing to donate.
China is the top country in the world in terms of carrying out organ transplants as well as for having the most patients waiting for transplants. According to official figures from Chinese health authorities, more than 1.3 million patients wait for organ transplants each year while only 10,000 are lucky enough to get one. The rest try their luck in the underground black market.
Prior to 2010, the majority of Chinese organ transplants came from executed prisoners, prompting criticism from the international community.

Transplant specialist calls on China to end use of organs from executed prisoners

by Professor Jeremy R Chapman, MD, FRACP, FRCP, Clinical Director, Division of Medicine and Cancer, Renal Unit, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia and Past President, the Transplantation Society.

In 2011, China transplanted more organs than any other country except the United States. The source of those donated organs is a worldwide concern. A few hundred of the 10 000–12 000 organs came from intensive care units as donations after cardiac death; brain death is not legally recognised in China. An unknown number were sourced from living donors. The use of executed prisoners’ organs has been acknowledged by government officials, but despite efforts to change this, executed prisoners still comprise most organ donors. The Falun Gong movement and its supporters claim that they are targeted as organ donors through execution.

Despite at least 100 000 Chinese citizens needing transplants each year, internet advertisements for foreigners to purchase organ transplants continue, although banned by Chinese law in 2007. Sales of organs have continued, albeit at a reduced volume, reportedly with up to $1 million paid for “priority for liver transplant allocation”.

What is the reality and what should transplant and medical professionals and the Australian community do? 

Viewpoint: Financial compensation for deceased organ donation in China

by Dr Qiang Fang, Intensive Care Unit, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou.
In China, about 1.5 million Chinese patients are placed on organ transplant waiting lists each year, yet less than 1% of them have managed to receive an organ.
The gap between the need for and the supply of organs is large—and growing. The Regulation on Human Organ Transplantation strictly stipulates that living organ donation is limited to relatives. The number of organs from executed prisoners is decreasing. In March 2010, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) and the Ministry of Health of China jointly launched a pilot programme of deceased organ donation in 10 provinces and cities.  This programme marks a turning point in the transplant history of China. By March 2012, there were 207 deceased donors in total. However, with the country's population of 1.3 billion, the deceased donor rate remains significantly lower than in Spain and other Western countries.
In China, the shortage of deceased organ donors is due to a belief that the body should be left intact, a lack of incentive policy to increase the donation rate, and the weakness of programmes promoting voluntary organ donation. Traditional cultural beliefs about the proper disposition of a corpse constitute the major obstacle to deceased organ donation in China. The Confucian tenet of filial piety requires that a body be returned to the ancestors in an intact state and declares that every part of the body that is given by the parents deserves respect. People have also believed for thousands of years that keeping the dead body intact is a way of respecting the dead. These beliefs produce resistance to organ donation. Although nowadays cremation is carried out in many parts of China, most people still insist that the dead body be kept intact before being taken to cremation.
In order to provide incentive for deceased organ donation, five pilot provinces and cities (Zhejiang, Tianjin, Jiangxi, Jinan and Liaoning) have launched a financial compensation policy. We will take Zhejiang Province as an example. Zhejiang Red Cross established the Human Organ Donation Compensation Foundation in March 2012. From March 2010 to March 2012, there were 20 donors.  From April 2012 to the end of July, there were 23 donors. During these 4 months, Zhejiang organ donation witnessed rapid growth. Zhejiang Province, with 43 donors, is now rated number 2 of the pilot provinces and cities.
Organ donation can proceed only if one of the following conditions is met: the deceased has expressed a willingness to be an organ donor in either a living will or another written form, and his or her closest relative provides written consent for organ donation, or the potential donor has not expressed opposition to donation before his or her death, and his or her closest relative provides written consent for organ donation.
A characteristic of organ donation in China is that the Red Cross acts as the third party non-profit organisation in implementing the donation policy with the authority of law. In Zhejiang, the Red Cross is responsible for raising and managing funds for financial compensation, thus ensuring that money is used in a fair and legal way. Transplant hospitals are not allowed to be involved in management of the funds. Government appropriation, transplant hospital contributions and charitable donation are the usual sources of funds.
Financial compensation can be considered to include two main forms, the ‘thank you’ form and the ‘help’ form. ‘Thank you’ compensation includes three aspects. First, Zhejiang Red Cross Society will pay for basic funeral expenses, which cover body transportation, cremation and ash urn storage. Then the Society will offer the donors’ families USD 1600 for the cost of purchasing a grave plot. In addition, the donors’ families will be provided with USD 3200 allowance. This kind of compensation is gratitude on behalf of the Society for consenting to donation. If the families of deceased donors face hardship, Zhejiang Red Cross will offer them extra compensation, which can be no more than USD 4800. The family is eligible to apply for extra compensation only if one of the following conditions is met: the family has been designated a low-income family by the local Bureau of Civil Affairs and receives dole from the government every month, or the income of the family is at the level of local per capita income before the donor's death and the deceased donor was the family's main earner. The committee of Human Organ Donation of Zhejiang Red Cross will assess applicants’ eligibility. Then the committee will discuss how much money should be offered to a donor's family. The amount of compensation offered to a family is not according to the number of procured organs, but according to the degree of the family's suffering. However, there is no formal criterion to estimate the degree of suffering. Generally, the committee will make enquiries into the family's financial situation, assessing such factors as how many dependants the family supports, and whether the donor's spouse has the ability to support the family. Then the final decision will be made by the committee. This kind of compensation is social welfare support for needy families.
Those who consent to donation out of altruism deserve social appreciation and respect. Chinese social ethics not only upholds the moral value of benevolence, humaneness and mutual aid, but also advocates rewarding a good deed. In 1993, China established the China Foundation for Justice and Courage aiming to carry forward traditional Chinese virtues, foster healthy social trends, commend justice-upholding volunteers, and provide legal protection and financial assistance for those who take up the cudgels for a just cause. In July 2012, a Good Samaritan regulation was placed on the legislative agenda to protect those who lend a hand. A good deed itself might not have any economic value. However, the reward could be offered in spiritual and material form. A survey of 463 people of different educational level showed that 87.96% supported financial compensation.  Financial compensation could express society's gratitude for altruistic spirit and ease the financial pressure of voluntary donors’ families in needy circumstances.
In January 2012, a student from Hubei Province died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Shenzhen city. The grieving parents donated their daughter's organs and body. Meanwhile, they were unable to pay USD 11 200 for medical expenses, which is a heavy burden for a blue-collar family. As Shenzhen has not yet implemented the financial compensation policy, the organisation's charitable donation provided the family with the means to meet these expenses. China is a developing country with a gross national product of USD 5432 per capita in 2011. There are 128 million citizens, accounting for 10% of the country's total population, living below the poverty line (per capita income for living expenses of urban households less than USD 368 a year). The majority of them live in the country. In addition, medical expenses are a heavy burden for rural residents because of the lack of a good medical insurance system. If a donor's family is faced with financial problems, financial compensation will give timely assistance to that family.
Although China needs a financial compensation programme for deceased organ donation, undesirable consequences have emerged. Of the 207 deceased donors, the proportion of poor donors is much higher than that of other donors. The vice minister of the Red Cross, Zhao Baige, said in an interview that 90% of 207 deceased donors’ families faced financial difficulties. This indicates that some of these families consented to donation because they were in need of financial assistance. With the developing economy, the continued increase in deceased organ donation rate dependent on this policy is doubtful in the long run. In addition, some donors’ families in needy circumstances have suffered great stress, as they were thought to have sold organs of their deceased loved ones.
Financial compensation for deceased organ donation is not unique to China. In 2000, the US state of Pennsylvania implemented a programme of offering USD 300 to the families of organ donors to defray funeral expenses. In 2010, Israel launched a new policy to offer compensation to the families of deceased organ donors. The Israeli Ministry of Health stipulates that families who agree to donate the organs of deceased loved ones will receive USD 13 400. However, China differs from other countries with similar programmes by offering extra compensation for needy families of deceased donors.
In July 2012, the State Council of China issued a guideline for promoting the development of the RCSC. According to the guideline, the government will help the RCSC found provincial organ donation foundations that can sponsor donations and transplants. Financial compensation programmes will be implemented in other pilot provinces and cities. To promote the healthy development of deceased organ donation, programmes promoting voluntary organ donation should be operated extensively to encourage altruism and raise the proportion of donors other than poor ones.
Source: Journal of Medical Ethics

EU Parliament calls for action on Chinese doctors and organ removal

Spanish politician Raül Romeva i Rueda, a Member of the European Parliament asked the following question in the EU Parliament:
"Despite the efforts made and the petitions to the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, organs are still being removed from detainees in China, the majority from Falun Gong followers, political dissidents, Uighur and Tibetan minorities. Official reports published by the Chinese authorities documented 18 500 cases of organ transplants between 1994 and 1999. According to estimates by Amnesty International, some 2 000 prisoners have been executed in China per year. Although 2 000 prisoners are executed, not all of them are suitable as donors (due to infections and other diseases, such as hepatitis, etc.). The number of real organ donors is therefore even smaller, and the supply of organs even more unrealistic. Prisons and labour camps in China, in collaboration with hospitals affiliated to the Chinese police and army, select organ donors from amongst hundreds of thousands of detainees for their clients (many from abroad), in practice killing those whose organs have been identified as compatible. There have been various cases of patients going to China with prior notice, as in the case of a doctor who had a patient needing a heart and who was notified two weeks before the operation. The Chinese Deputy Minster for Health, Huang Jiefu, said this year that prisoners were not a good source of organs because they have infectious diseases, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has admitted indirectly that there is a black market in China and a wide live organ removal network. However in reality it is believed that attempts are being made to hide the true scale of these crimes and that the Chinese government is attempting a whitewash.
These practices violate the right to life enshrined in Article 2 of the Charter, human dignity (Article 1 of the Charter), and the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 4 of the Charter). Does the Commission intend to investigate these cases? Does it intend to close a dialogue with China?
The EU has spoken out in the past against human rights violations outside of the EU. In the case of China, why is the EU reluctant to act transparently and clearly by means of investigations?
Many European hospitals and universities teach Chinese doctors, who can then return to China to apply their knowledge of European medicine in the unethical removal of organs. What is the Commission’s opinion? Does it believe that these doctors and teachers are unwittingly accomplices to these crimes?
Source: European Parliament

Attempts to establish a voluntary organ donor system in China face many obstacles

The outdated and sometimes cruel organ donor system in China is failing patients and organ donors.
The Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the government-affiliated Red Cross and its branches around the country, has been busy since November 2009 reorganizing transplant services and building a national system for recruiting voluntary donors and fairly allocating transplantable livers, kidneys, corneas and other body parts.
Assigned to lead the effort is a Hong Kong University team supervised by Wang Haibo, at the La Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine and the initiative’s chief engineer. The ongoing task has involved building a database and setting medical standards that blend established international practices with health ministry regulations and domestic circumstances.
Three years on, though, the program designed to match voluntary donors and needy recipients has faced one setback after another.
And it’s thus yielded scant results: Only about 400 transplants from organ donors have been conducted since the ministry and Red Cross started working together to link donors and patients in March 2010. More than 100 of these have been in Guangdong Province, which includes Shenzhen.
Indeed, the ministry says every year only about 10,000 of some 1.5 million ill people across the country who need a transplanted organ are fortunate enough to get one.
And a significant number of these transplanted organs come from not willing benefactors but deceased prison inmates — a common organ-harvesting practice that China has pledged to phase out.
“Why is it so hard to do something good?”
That question, in fact, has long been on minds at the highest levels of China’s health system. Offering a short-form answer Aug. 22 was Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu, who has urged reform for the nation’s organ donation arrangement.
 “What holds us back are not traditions or morals, but our system,” Huang said. “If China cannot establish a voluntary organ donation system for its citizens, inevitably there will be a severe organ shortage.”
The system’s failures have roots in a lack of confidence that’s worsened over the years because the richest and best-connected transplant candidates have enjoyed easier access to organs than most Chinese people.
Potential volunteer donors often hesitate or decide against offering organs because they don’t want to support a system that helps only high-status patients with enough money to pay the right people.
The ministry has tried to rebuild trust since putting Wang’s team to work in 2009 and announcing in December 2010 that procedures for patients “applying for human organ allocations and transplant sharing should conform to medical needs and adhere to the principles of fairness, justice and openness.” 

Read more: Caixin Online