Christians among victims of continuing practice of organ harvesting in China

The practice of forced organ harvesting is still going on in China and Christians who attend house churches are among the victims, says two investigators who spent 10 years researching the subject.

International human rights lawyer David Matas and former Crown attorney and Cabinet minister David Kilgour presented the findings of their report at the parliamentary international human rights subcommittee hearing in Ottawa on Nov. 3, Epoch Times reported.

The report, which was initially released in June, revealed that an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 organ transplants have been performed in Chinese hospitals every year since 2000. Organs were harvested mainly from Falun Gong practitioners but also from other prisoners of conscience such as Uyghurs, Tibetans and House Christians.

It has been revealed that organ transplants were the largest source of revenue of hospitals with transplant centers. Kilgour stated that the government and health institutions are involved in the practice of forced organ harvesting.

"Organ pillaging in China is a crime in which the Communist Party, state institutions, the health system, hospitals, and the transplant profession are all complicit," said Kilgour.

Matas and Kilgour described the practice as "the kernel at the center of human rights violations in China."

In December 2014, the subcommittee adopted a motion that condemned forced organ harvesting in China and called for the practice to end. The subcommittee amended the motion in March to indicate that Falun Gong and Uyghurs are the main targets of organ harvesting.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Germany have held a public forum at the Hotel Albrechtshof in Berlin where they laid out several proposals to stop the abuses committed in China.

Martin Patzelt, a conservative German MP, suggested that China should be pressured to stop organ harvesting by condemning the practice through resolutions similar to those passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the European Parliament.

He noted that many Chinese surgeons have been trained in Western countries and added that laws should be passed to prevent institutions from training Chinese doctors.

Arne Schwarz, an independent researcher of organ trafficking, recommended that Germany should adopt a policy that would deny entry to foreign doctors who are involved in killing for human organs.

Schwarz pointed out that Western pharmaceutical companies have supplied organ transplant drugs to China and conducted unethical clinical trials. Patzelt said that the West could take measures to limit the said activity of the pharmaceutical companies.

Another lawmaker suggested that Germany should pass laws against "transplant tourism." Other participants at the forum asserted that organ harvesting in China could end if the public is fully aware of the practice and its scale.

"Some members of the parliament said, 'This is impossible,'" said Patzelt, referring to Germany's involvement in preventing the practice of organ harvesting in China.

"I would say, 'It is not impossible. We've just never done it.' We should have the courage to embark on this path, and then we will be able to change a lot of things,'" he added.