By Damiana Zaborowski, Third Place winner of the 2024 Human Rights Essay Contest.
China has decided to put a modern spin on the classic tale of Robin Hood. Rather than stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, the CCP (i.e. the Chinese Communist Party) has found that it is more profitable to steal organs from the poor and otherwise vulnerable in their own prison systems, and to sell these organs to those who are more monetarily fortunate. China first began taking the organs of prisoners who received the death penalty in 1984, and “in 2005, the government first openly stated that the majority of organs came from executed prisoners.”1 These prisoners are often political opponents of the CCP, or a part of a religious or ethnic minority that the CCP is trying to exploit, eradicate, and deprive of a dignified and natural death; they are not locked away for any true crime. This practice of involuntary organ harvesting is only increasing, and is becoming increasingly organized.2 The situation is horrifying and deserves the active attention of all who value the dignity of the human person, and respect the human body.
While it is politically unappealing (and for most companies, financially detrimental), the US has the moral obligation to act by immediately ceasing all use of any Chinese research on the subject of organ transplantation, discouraging U.S. patients from traveling to China for a transplant, and condemning these atrocities.
Those in prison camps, specifically those of ethnic and religious minorities such as Falun Gong practitioners, Muslim Uyghurs, and Christians are the CCP’s primary targets for involuntary organ harvesting.3 “Whistleblowers have claimed that prisoners, including those from religious minorities, have been killed for their organs,” constituting an unprecedented horror.4 Additionally, “witnesses alleged mass blood typing and medical and DNA testing of detained prisoners, which could indicate that China is targeting minorities,” and systemically stealing what is most vital to their bodily integrity.5 China has decided that it is no longer enough to murder those they hate; they must also maximize the profits that they can make from their deaths.
China’s financial gains from these operations are significant. In a BBC report, it was discovered that “…the price of a liver from an executed prisoner [was] at £50 000 (€74 000; $93 00),” and “…the Canadian human rights activists David Matas and David Kilgour said that the prices for organs in China were $62 000 for a kidney, $98 000 to $130 000 for a liver, $150 000 to $170 000 for a lung, and $30 000 for a cornea.”6 A disturbing detail to consider is that the Falun Gong specifically are actually quite healthy since, as a part of their spiritual practice, they exercise, eat well, do not smoke or drink, and practice meditation.7 This means that wealthy members of the CCP who, for example, have damaged their livers (possibly due to excessive alcohol consumption or other unhealthy life choices) can pay for the transplantation (and execution) of a young healthy Falun Gong prisoner’s liver and live many more years.8 The injustice of such a scenario is sickening.
It is also the case that US hospitals, doctors, and desperate patients are unknowingly (and unfortunately, in some cases knowingly) participating in this injustice, by using research used by Chinese physicians who performed these operations on involuntary, living patients, and by traveling to China to have these procedures done.9 The methods developed by Chinese doctors focus solely on profit and the success of the transplant. It is alleged “that executioners and surgeons developed methods to remove organs before the victim was clinically dead,” which is done in order to preserve the organs, to preserve a useful part rather than the beautiful whole.10 In a chilling account, “Enver Tohti, [an exiled] Uyghur, recounted his experience in China as a surgeon who had been required to perform organ extractions. He said, ‘What I recall is, with my scalpel I tried to cut into [the patient’s] skin, [and] there was blood to be seen. That indicates that the heart was still beating . . . he was trying to resist my insertion, but he was too weak.’”11 Testimony such as this renders the silence surrounding this horror even more appalling.
So far there has been very little discussion around the topic, although “in June of 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 343 (2016), which condemned ‘the practice of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting in the People’s Republic of China’ and demanded ‘an immediate end to the 17-year persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice.’”12 At the very least, there should be more conversations regarding these atrocities, and this begins with individuals offering up prayers and protesting this injustice. As a nation, the absolute least that the U.S. should do is to speak out more aggressively and more often. Even voluntary organ donation has not been questioned enough, and even in the U.S., “the immense public pressure behind the effort to secure more organs for transplantation threatens to dehumanize the dying process.”13 That being said, involuntary organ removal is unquestionably evil; what the Chinese government is doing is wrong, and if China’s attempt to cover their crimes is effective even in the Free-World, then one must question how free it is.
China must be held accountable for actively choosing to prolong the lives of the rich by cutting short the lives of the poor. One does not necessarily have to be Robin Hood to make a positive impact on this situation; the US is above theft, and has no need for the stolen wealth of the CCP.
If the U.S. does actively speak out, impose sanctions, and prevent U.S. patients from traveling to China for transplants, many lives will likely be saved, and perhaps China will slowly begin to change for the better; there is hope. At the very least, China would have a decreased financial incentive to tear organs from living bodies. The human body is a temple, and it was not created to be torn apart for money. Citizens of the U.S. can demonstrate their belief in this truth by raising their voices together in prayer and protest.
1 Andrew Junker, “Live Organ Harvesting in China: Falun Gong and Unsettled Rumor,” American journal of cultural sociology 6, no. 1 (2018): 96–124.
2 Richard Hurley, “Evidence to Contradict ‘Substantial’ Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners in China Is Lacking, Tribunal Hears,” BMJ (Online) 365 (2019): l1805–l1805.
3 Andrew Junker, “Live Organ Harvesting in China: Falun Gong and Unsettled Rumor,” American journal of cultural sociology 6, no. 1 (2018): 96–124.
4 Richard Hurley, “Evidence to Contradict ‘Substantial’ Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners in China Is Lacking, Tribunal Hears,” BMJ (Online) 365 (2019): l1805–l1805.
5 Ibid.
6 John Zarocostas, “UN Questions China over Organ Harvesting,” BMJ 333, no. 7572 (2006): 770–770.
7 Real Stories. “Fighting China’s Forced Organ Harvesting (Crime Documentary).” March 29, 2020, video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unXw_TQSpFw.
8 Note: While this scenario might appear as if it is blaming those who need an organ transplant operation for their condition, that is certainly not the intent. It is merely meant to highlight the injustice of a potential situation.9 Richard Hurley, “China’s Forced Organ Harvesting Constitutes Crimes against Humanity, Informal London Tribunal Finds,” BMJ (Online) 365 (2019): l4287–l4287.
10 Andrew Junker, “Live Organ Harvesting in China: Falun Gong and Unsettled Rumor,” American journal of cultural sociology 6, no. 1 (2018): 96–124.
11 Richard Hurley, “China’s Forced Organ Harvesting Constitutes Crimes against Humanity, Informal London Tribunal Finds,” BMJ (Online) 365 (2019): l4287–l4287.
12 Andrew Junker, “Live Organ Harvesting in China: Falun Gong and Unsettled Rumor,” American journal of cultural sociology 6, no. 1 (2018): 96–124.13 Gilbert Meilaender, Bioethics : A Primer for Christians, Third edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013.
Bibliography
Hurley, Richard. “China’s Forced Organ Harvesting Constitutes Crimes against Humanity, Informal London Tribunal Finds.” BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online) 365 (2019): l4287–l4287.
Hurley, Richard. “Evidence to Contradict ‘Substantial’ Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners in China Is Lacking, Tribunal Hears.” BMJ (Online) 365 (2019): l1805–l1805.
Junker, Andrew. “Live Organ Harvesting in China: Falun Gong and Unsettled Rumor.” American journal of cultural sociology 6, no. 1 (2018): 96–124.
https://doi-org.proxycu.wrlc.org/10.1057/s41290-016-0020-8.
Meilaender, Gilbert. Bioethics : A Primer for Christians. Third edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013.
Real Stories. “Fighting China’s Forced Organ Harvesting (Crime Documentary).” March 29, 2020, video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unXw_TQSpFw.
Zarocostas, John. “UN Questions China over Organ Harvesting.” BMJ: British Medical Journal
333, no. 7572 (2006): 770–770.