Transplant Congress held at the
Moscone Center in San Francisco from
July 26 to 31, experts from all over the
world came to share their latest
research and mingle with the best
minds in the field. Among the topics of
conversation: how the work of saving
lives through transplantation is being
used to take lives in China.
Professor Jacob Lavee, director of the
Heart Transplantation Unit at Israel's
largest medical center and a member of
the human rights group Doctors
Against Forced Organ Harvesting
(DAFOH), spoke at the conference with
Epoch Times about the practice in
China of harvesting organs from
prisoners of conscience—particularly
those who practice the spiritual
discipline Falun Gong, which is banned
in China.
Transplant Scheduled Two Weeks in
Advance
Lavee first became aware of the issue in
2005.
"A patient of mine who had waited for
almost a year on top priority list for a
heart transplant came to me one day
and told me that his insurance
company told him to go to China."
He was already scheduled to go to
China for a transplant in two weeks.
"I asked him, 'How come they can
schedule a heart transplant [ahead of
time]?' He said he didn't bother to ask.
And the guy went to China and got the
heart on exactly the day he was
promised."
Lavee began to research the issue.
"We found the entire horrible process
that has been taking place in China
since 1984, when China had enacted a
law that enables the use of organs from
executed prisoners," he said.
At that point, Lavee began a large
public campaign, writing papers in
medical journals and then contacting
the media in Israel. He let people know
exactly where those transplant organs
in China were coming from.
Stemming from his efforts, the Israeli
Parliament enacted an organ transplant
law in 2008 that bans reimbursement
for Israeli patients who receive illegal
organs. Before that, insurance policies
had fully covered transplants from
China. After Israelis learned the truth
about China's ready supply of organs,
not a single citizen went to China to get
transplants, Lavee said.
He believes every country should enact
a law that stops its citizens from going
to China for organ transplants.
"The transplants committed in China
thrive on transplant tourists," he said.
But that's not enough. "Because even if
there will be no single transplant
tourist coming to China, still, local
candidates for organs could get organs
from executed prisoners and prisoners
of conscience," he said.
He strongly condemned the process
China uses for procuring organs.
"They're acting against every
convention and against every basic
principle of ethics that conducts the
entire business of transplants
worldwide. The basic principle is that
organ donation should be done only,
only on the free will of the donor or his
family. And they're breaching this
principle. Once that's breached, it
becomes a crime against humanity."
He calls for all countries to work
together to "make parliaments press
politically and diplomatically through
their own connection with China and
through the United Nations so that the
process will stop in China altogether."
'Didn't Want History to Repeat'
Lavee said he has a personal reason for
being concerned about this issue.
"I am a son of a father who was a
survivor of the Nazi concentration
camp in Germany," he said. "This is
what makes me personally go through
all this. I didn't want history to repeat
itself. I didn't want the crime against
humanity that was exerted on my
people … to repeat itself nowadays."
"And that's actually what's going on
nowadays," he said. "The complacency
of the world community shutting its
eyes to what's going on there is
something that I couldn't tolerate. And
at least in my own small country, I
hope I managed to do that."
He said that not many people
understand the similarity of the current
situation to the events of the World
War II.
"The magnitude of the process which
takes place in China now is so big that
people sometimes cannot believe that
that's what's going on," Lavee said.
He said the medical community has an
obligation to make sure the people are
aware of it. After that, the next step will
be to take measures to stop it.
"But right now, people do not believe,"
he said.
Lavee published a paper this month in
the American Journal of
Transplantation. It's a brand new paper
with new data, he said, explaining the
transplant situation in China.
As for how people can help, he suggests
that everyone learn about the situation,
and also about House Resolution 281
currently in the U.S. Congress.
"It's right on the verge of being
enacted, so any pressure from within
toward Washington would be great," he
said.
'One of the Ultimate Human Rights
Violations'
A doctoral candidate at Emory
University at Atlanta, FikreJesus
Amahazion, is studying human rights,
and is currently doing research on
organ trafficking and organ harvesting.
"I'm interested in the multidimensional
components that see this issue raised to
an international level," he said.
Amahazion observed that international
attention was being paid to human
trafficking, labor trafficking, and sex
trafficking, but that organ trafficking
wasn't being properly addressed.
He wanted to learn more at this
conference about the situation of organ
harvesting in China.
"This is one of the ultimate human
rights violations," he said. "If we think
about various violations to bodily
integrity, violations [of] murder,
violations against human dignity, basic
rights, prisoner rights, conventions
against torture, these violate all of
those type of things."
Former Diplomat Alarmed
Former diplomat and author James
Patterson also attended the World
Transplant Congress.
At one time, his own daughter needed a
transplant. Waiting for a donor often
takes years, and unfortunately she did
not live long enough to receive the
transplant.
In China, the wait time is much less.
"I'm very alarmed to learn that in
China it can only take a day, or a couple
of days, or a week in order to get a
transplant." he said.
He noticed that this wasn't the case in
any other country.
"I call on the United States to look into
these described abuses here, and into
the House resolutions, and to see what
can be done to bring this matter
diplomatically to the Chinese
government, so that they'll look into it
and respond to it and be responsive to
the American people," Patterson
said.Nephrologist:
'It Is Absolutely Illegal'
Dr. Sanjeev Gulati, the director of
Nephrology at the Fortis Escorts Heart
Institute in New Delhi, India, presented
a paper at the World Transplant
Congress about a new transplantation
drug.
He also got reporters' attention by
walking through the convention hall
wearing a sticker that said, "Stop
Forced Organ Harvesting
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