In a new resolution introduced by the Minnesota state legislature on March 4, 2021, state senators and representatives are renewing their calls for the Chinese Communist Party to stop the “cold genocide and forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.”
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline with five sets of slow-moving exercises. It was introduced to the public in 1992 and quickly spread across China within a few years. With its overwhelming popularity, the Chinese Communist Party ordered a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong in July 1999, attempting to eradicate it from China in three months.
With directives to “ruin their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically,” the CCP began to target Falun Gong practitioners across China. Some human rights lawyers have called the persecution “an unprecedented evil on this planet,” in which Falun Gong practitioners are killed for their organs to fuel the massive transplant industry in China.
Even though China does not have a functional organ donation system, some hospitals advertised on their websites and promised matching organs in weeks or even days. Some doctors blatantly admitted that ample and fresh organs came from living Falun Gong practitioners.
Since forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience was first reported in 2006, over 2,000 voice recordings and witness accounts have been collected, all pointing to the existence of the crime in China’s organ supply chain with participation by the communist government, military police, and state hospitals.
The China Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, a leading British expert on human rights law, released its final judgment on March 1, 2020, declaring the CCP’s campaign of forced organ harvesting from innocent victims a “crime against humanity” that constitutes one of the world’s “worst atrocities committed” in the past century.
Prior to the introduction of the new resolution, the Minnesota State Senate passed a resolution in 2016 condemning the forced organ harvesting crime. In the new Senate resolution SF1783, co-authored by five state senators, and the House companion version HF1906, co-authored by 13 state representatives, the legislature would recognize the organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners as a “cold genocide” and calls on the Minnesota Medical Association produce “a report on China’s transplant and organ procurement practices as well as the status of prisoners of conscience as sources of transplantable organs.”
In addition to the state-level resolution in Minnesota, the U.S. Congress has also introduced the “Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act,” which aims to stop the Chinese Communist Party from harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience.
***
Below is the full text of the Minnesota resolution:
A resolution
calling for an end to the cold genocide and forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.
WHEREAS, ethical guidelines for transplantation are set forth by the Minnesota Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the World Medical Association, and the World Health Organization; the medical profession has the responsibility to protect the rights and interests of patients who need and seek transplant surgery, as well as to protect the rights and interests of those whose organs may have been procured in an unethical manner; and
WHEREAS, China is the country that performs the largest number of transplants in the world and thus must be held accountable to particular standards to act ethically and transparently regarding organ transplants and organ procurement; and
WHEREAS, systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting not only from executed prisoners but particularly from prisoners of conscience in China has occurred with the knowledge of the Chinese government; and there are credible investigative reports about forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China that have led to parliamentarian actions; and
WHEREAS, the United States Congress passed House Resolution 343 in June, 2016, calling for an end to forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China, and the European Parliament also passed Written Declaration 48 in the summer of 2016 calling for investigations and an end to forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China; and
WHEREAS, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), a medical nongovernmental organization that was nominated for a Nobel Peace [Prize] in 2016 and 2017, collected over 3,000,000 signatures for a petition to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, thereby establishing widespread public interest in this matter, is calling for an end to forced organ harvesting in China; and
WHEREAS, a review of the Government of the People’s Republic of China by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review in November 2018 recommended that China “[e]nd prosecution and persecution on the basis of religion or belief, including for Muslims, Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong”; and
WHEREAS, on September 24, 2019, Mr. Hamid Sabi, Counsel to the China Tribunal, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council with the Tribunal’s conclusion that forced organ harvesting from hundreds of thousands of prisoners of conscience has been committed on a significant scale for years throughout China, continuing to this day; and
WHEREAS, recent research has established that China’s public organ donation program, which is said to be the foundation of its transplant reform, is not plausible; and
WHEREAS, Chinese transplant numbers have increased dramatically and transplant tourism has become a lucrative source of income in China, leading to a rapid expansion of the transplant infrastructure in China in absence of a credible organ donation system, and China has declared the [Hainan] Islands to be a special economic zone for medical tourism; and
WHEREAS, the forced organ harvesting in China from prisoners of conscience, primarily from Falun Gong practitioners, is part of a cold genocide against Falun Gong; NOW, THEREFORE
BE IT RESOLVED that the Minnesota Senate and the Minnesota House of Representatives recognize the importance of ethical standards in the medical profession; AND, THEREFORE
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Minnesota Senate and the Minnesota House of Representatives request from the Minnesota Medical Association a report on China’s transplant and organ procurement practices as well as the status of prisoners of conscience as sources of transplantable organs; AND, THEREFORE
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Minnesota Senate and the Minnesota House of Representatives ask the Minnesota Medical Association to request from the American Medical Association a report on China’s transplant and organ procurement practices as well as the status of prisoners of conscience as sources of transplantable organs; AND, THEREFORE
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it urges the President and the Congress of the United States to call upon China to end the cold genocide and forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the Minnesota Falun Dafa Organization, the President of the United States, the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Minnesota’s Senators and Representatives in Congress.
All articles, graphics, and content published on Minghui.org are copyrighted. Non-commercial reproduction is allowed but requires attribution with the article title and a link to the original article.
Chinese version available
(Clearwisdom)