Harvesting prisoners
Amnesty International holds forum about China's alleged organ-transplant practices
Joe Nguyen, editor
Feb. 9, 2007

Photo by Joe Nguyen Charles Lee holds a Homer Simpson slipper during an Amnesty International forum Feb. 1 in Boulder. Lee said he had to manufacture these slippers while he was imprisoned in China.

BOULDER – Members of Falun Gong in China are allegedly being imprisoned and having their organs harvested according to speakers during an Amnesty International forum Feb. 1 at the Glenn Miller Ballroom on the CU-Boulder campus.

Despite the inclement weather, more than 300 were in attendance. The forum titled, “China’s New Genocide – Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience,” focused on the country’s emerging organ-transplant market. A prisoner of conscience is a term meaning someone who is imprisoned because of their race, religion, color, language, sexual orientation or belief.

The four speakers, three of whom are part of the Falun Gong religious movement, contended that the Chinese government has been harvesting the organs of prisoners in order to sell them to patients in foreign countries.

“The volume of transplants (in China) increased tremendously after the persecution of Falun Gong began,” David Matas said during his speech.

Matas, a lawyer from Canada, said he was asked to do an independent report on the organ-harvesting allegations. His report states, “The overwhelming majority of prisoners of conscience in Chinese prisons are Falun Gong. An estimated two-thirds of the torture victims in Chinese prisons are Falun Gong.”

“Why (does) China, a country (which) didn’t have a tradition of donating organs, have such a plentiful supply of organs?” Wenyi Wang said during her speech. Wang is known for calling out to President George W. Bush and Chinese leader Hu Jintao April 20, 2006 at the White House for the end of China’s persecution of Falun Gong.

According to UStransplant.org, the average time to receive an organ transplant from the day a name is placed on a waiting list ranges from five months to several years, depending on the organ. According to Wang, the waiting period is one to four weeks in China.

“So where are the organs coming from?” Wang said.

Alice Kim, a member of Amnesty International at CU-Boulder said her group didn’t know about the subject until a woman asked for their help.

“We thought it was a good cause," Kim said, "and it’s not well known so we decided to put together an event."

Joe Nguyen is the editor in chief for AsiaXpress.com. You can contact Joe via e-mail at joe@asiaxpress.com.