Investigation Lead: China Has Become The World Organ Transplant Centre, But Where do the Organs Come From?

After the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners were exposed, the Falun Dafa Association and the Minghui/Clearwisdom website launched the "Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong" (CIPFG) on April 4th, 2006 and started to collect evidence on a large scale. Below is some evidence we have recently received. We hope that people who know the truth will continue to help us to expose the persecution of Falun Gong in labour camps, prisons, and hospitals throughout China, so that these atrocities can be stopped.

Investigation lead: “China has developed into the world organ transplant centre;” Where do the organs come from?

An article entitled China Has Developed Into the World Organ Transplantation Centre was published on page six of the LifeDigest newspaper from China on March 3, 2006. According to the author, the number of foreign patients in need of organ transplants has increased dramatically. Such is the case with the Tianjin City No. 1 Central Hospital Transplant Outpatient Department, also called the Oriental Organ Transplant Centre (OOTC). This facility began admitting Korean [transplant] patients in 2002. The number of patients increased to 500 in the year 2006.

Patients at this hospital come from more than 20 countries, including Japan, Malaysia, Egypt, Palestine, and India. According to published data, surgeons at the OOTC had performed 1,500 liver transplants, about 800 kidney transplants and an unknown number of cornea transplants by the end of 2004. Chosunilbo, a Korean newspaper, stated that the OOTC once carried out 44 liver transplants within one week in December 2004, which averages 8.8 liver transplants a day during a five-day workweek. OOTC director Shen Zhongyang said the centre had performed 597 liver transplants by December 16th, 2005. The number jumped to 650 by December 30th, 2005, which means 53 liver transplants were completed within two weeks.

Why does China have such an “ample” supply of organs? OOTC director Shen Zhongyang refused to reveal the source of the organs. Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu said at a liver transplant conference in July of 2005 that the majority of organs used for transplant in China were from executed prisoners. Statistics published by Amnesty International show that the number of death row inmates averaged 1,616 a year between 2000 and 2005; yet, the OOTC alone performed 650 liver transplants in 2005, not accounting for other types of transplant surgeries, such as kidney transplants. Currently, several hundred hospitals in China perform transplant surgeries. No matter how one explains the situation according to the common definition of “executed prisoners,” those prisoners cannot account for the overall quantity of transplant surgeries, unless the definition of “executed prisoners” is broadened to include people that the Communist Party wants to kill, including those who are wantonly killed without trial. Then, Falun Gong practitioners would make up the largest group of victims, who are subject to the regime's policy, “the death [of Falun Gong practitioners] from beating shall be counted as suicide,” and are sent to prisons and labour camps without any due legal process.

The Vice Health Minister even addressed “ethics principles,” “China’s situation and cultural background;” the importance of obtaining “consent from [prisoners’] families” and “humanitarian treatment of death row inmates.” From ancient times to this day, according to China’s situation, ethics, and Chinese cultural background, Chinese people are unwilling to donate organs after death. Even organ donations among relatives are still few and far between. Besides, only organs from live bodies are used at the OOTC. Is the Vice Health Minister aware of organs harvested from living Falun Gong practitioners and the bodies cremated and the traces of the crime extinguished? Can he present evidence that the practitioners’ families gave consent and the practitioners received humanitarian treatment?

According to transplant recipients' families, they were told that most “donors” were in their 20s and 30s, which is suspicious, given the current situation in China. We absolutely have no way of knowing their exact identity.

Investigation lead: three kidneys from living bodies were obtained in one day at the Xinhua Hospital Affiliated with Dalian University

Dalian Evening News reported on December 30th, 2006, that “three kidney transplants were carried out at the same hospital.” The Xinhua Hospital Affiliated with Dalian University received three kidneys from living bodies within one day and transplanted them into three patients. The organ source is unknown.

Investigation lead: Kidney transplant at the Nuoya Women’s Hospital in Jilin City

On February 14th, 2007, around 10:00 p.m., I saw a report entitled “Transplanted Life” in the “Unusual Record” program on the Life channel from the Jilin City TV Station. The report consisted of a real-time video recording of two kidney transplant procedures on the same patient at the Nuoya Women’s Hospital in Jilin City.

The patient’s name is Zhang Peng, a university student in her 20s. The kidney transplant failed the first time so another transplant was performed. In order to ensure successful surgery, the hospital prepared two kidneys from two different donors. The first transplant was also performed at this hospital. The patient had blood type B, and the hospital was able to obtain three kidneys from three people with matching blood type B within a very short period.

I did not catch the beginning of the report; I cut in when the head surgeons were discussing the details of the second surgery. A military doctor was running the meeting, although it is a civil hospital and not a military hospital. I saw him in military uniform in one scene. Facing the camera, he gave some details of the situation about the upcoming transplant surgery and the last one, and he also said the doctors were experienced, having performed more than 1,000 kidney transplants.

This military doctor looked like he is in his 40s or 50s, and of average stature. He very briefly mentioned that the donor kidneys came from cadavers. I have some medical knowledge, and I felt he was lying.

Three other doctors, one head nurse and two nurses were also present at the pre-surgical conference. The head nurse was taking notes with her head bowed low. All the doctors were men, and all the nurses were women.

From the video, one could see that the medical equipment appeared outdated, and the patient wards were unclean. The patient’s family looked like peasants from the countryside. The doctors played with the kidneys at times, looking unprofessional. The nurses were rigid, and the entire medical staff had a menacing look on their faces.

What was the purpose of this program? Were they trying to explain the cause of the failed transplant? The other staff members did not appear very confident. Were they trying to advertise their hospital? When I told other people about it they said, “That’s silly [of the patient]. How can she do it at such a small hospital?”

Many small hospitals were founded in Jilin City in the past three or five years that claim qualifications for performing major surgeries. There is tremendous evil being covered up in Jilin City, and even throughout Jilin Province.

Nuoya Women’s Hospital, Consultation hotline: 86-432-4675355