By Ying Zi, Minghui reporter in Canada
On January 31, 2007, two Canadian investigators released the revised version
of their investigation report in which more direct evidence was added, showing
that victims of live organ harvesting are Falun Gong practitioners. Such operations
involving harvesting organs from living individuals have been undertaken in
hospitals across China.
Harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners occurs across China
On March 17, 2006, a woman using the pseudonym “Annie” told The Epoch Times newspaper that her ex-husband, a surgeon, had personally removed the corneas from an estimated 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners who, at that point, were still alive. The operations took place in a hospital in Sujiatun, Shenyang Province, during the two-year period before October 2003. The surgeon made it clear to his wife that none of the cornea “donors” survived the experience, because other surgeons removed other vital organs and all the rest of the “donors'” bodies were then cremated. Annie said her ex-husband’s involvement in the operations to harvest organs from living Falun Gong practitioners caused their family great pain.
The revised report said that, when citing this evidence, a good deal of information that Annie provided was “impossible to corroborate independently…So, in the end, we relied on what Annie told us only where it was corroborative and consistent with other evidence, rather than as sole source information.” After the first version of the report was released, two investigators engaged the controversy in Annie’s testimony directly and made a detailed analysis of what Wu Hongda, her husband, said (in the appendix). They found that what Annie’s ex-husband told her is credible.
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The revised report added more recorded evidence obtained through investigators’ telephone calls to Chinese hospitals and published the statistics. Investigator M called transplant doctors in about 80 hospitals across China. Doctors from ten hospitals admitted they use Falun Gong practitioners as organ suppliers. Five hospitals said they can obtain practitioners as organ suppliers. Fourteen hospitals admitted they use live organs from prisoners. Ten hospitals said that the source of their organs is a “state secret” and they could not reveal it over the phone.
Doctors who admitted they use Falun Gong practitioners’ organs even admitted over the phone that transplant operations across China are all done the same way. For example, the report cited the recorded telephone conversation with the Shanghui Ruijin Hospital on October 25, 2006:
…
Investigator: Do you use live kidneys [for transplant]?
Doctor: Yes.
Investigator: Well, we have a relative in Shenyang. He said that it seemed that there were a larger number of kidneys used over there and that they were better in quality. He refers to that kind from Falun Gong, right? Do you use this kind as well?
…
Doctor: Yes.
Investigator: Wow, you use that kind as well.
Doctor: Every hospital is the same.
…
Investigator: I understand it is because the Falun Gong kind is much healthier, right?
Doctor: Correct.
Another telephone conversation was with No. 1 Hospital Affiliated with Jiaotong University of Xi’an (April 11, 2006):
…
Investigator: How long I have to wait for the organ supply?
Dr. Wang: … It probably will be before the month of May.
Investigator: Is the kidney from a live body?
Dr. Wang: We also have liverd from live bodies.
Investigator: You also have livers from live bodies?
Dr. Wang: We have, we have.
…
Investigator: The source of the organs is from a live human body?
Dr. Wang: Correct.
Investigator: There are some labor camps that jail Falun Gong practitioners, and then the organs are removed from their live bodies…
Dr. Wang: Yes, yes. What we care about is the quality. We don’t care about the source. What would you say? Now, in China, there are thousands of cases of liver transplants. Everyone is the same. It is impossible that, just because some information leaked out, everyone stops doing organ transplants.
Organ selling has never stopped
China’s Ministry of Health issued “Interim Regulation for Human Organ Transplant Practice” at the end of March last year and claimed that it would take effect on July 1, 2006. The regulation explicitly banned sales of organs, and medical institutions are required to obtain a written agreement from the donors before the transplant. Donors are entitled to refuse the donation at the last minute.
The new evidence added in the recent investigation report shows that harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners for transplants has never stopped. Other than the call made to the Shanghai Ruijin Hospital on October 25, 2006, the investigator called the No.1 Hospital Affiliated with the Inner Mongolia Medical College (November 14, 2006):
…
Doctor: Recently we might have [liver sources] …
…
Investigator: How much does it cost to do a liver transplant?
Doctor: We are relatively inexpensive-150,000-200,000 yuan.
Investigator: How long do we have to wait?
Doctor: About a month.
…
Investigator: That type, the Falun Gong type [organ supplier] is better…
…
Doctor: I know, I know. After you are over here, I’ll talk to you. I’m afraid that I couldn’t explain to you very well right now.
Investigator: Right, those that practice Falun Gong, they are very healthy.
Doctor: I know, I know.
Investigator: Can you find them? If it is ….
Doctor: Sure, I can.
…
The revised report highlighted that “when weighed against the recent international uproar about alleged organ seizures as the 2008 Beijing Olympics approach, the admissions made at the various institutions are contrary to the reputational interests of the government of China in attempting to convince the international community that the widespread killing of Falun Gong practitioners for their vital organs has not occurred.”
Posting date: 10/Feb/2007
Original article date: 10/Feb/2007
Category: World News