The international spotlight is increasingly focused on the rumor that alleged practice by China of harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience and members of religious and ethnic minority groups.
Harry Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps. He eventually became a U.S. citizen and is a prominent human rights activist. He is skeptical about the Falun Gong accusations.
“If you want to argue, if you want to protest, if you want to show up in front of the Chinese government, it’s right [alright]. But I told the Falun Gong very clear[ly] you really need the evidence," said Wu.
Wu has spoken with patients and doctors in China, and says the practice of removing the organs of executed prisoners continues but there has been a change in policy.
Gabriel Danovitch is a doctor at the University of California Los Angeles and a member of the Transplantation Society, also known as TTS. He says TTS is working with the Chinese government to establish a transplant registry similar to those in the United States and Europe.
“I believe at the highest levels of the Chinese government and health ministries a decision has been made, and there is an understanding that this practice must come to an end," said Danovitch.
Haibo Wang, a top Chinese health official, confirmed this, telling the World Health Organization Bulletin last year that relying on the organs of death row prisoners is not ethical or sustainable.
Doctors and human rights groups say change will not happen overnight. But Danovitch is hopeful that international pressure will move China to adopt an ethical way of acquiring organs for transplant.
