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Promoting Ethics in Medicine

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Letter from the Editor, Ann F Corson, MD

Greetings!

The DAFOH newsletter team wishes all our readers a happy and healthy 2019. Unfortunately, this will be yet another year of sadness, pain, and death for prisoners of conscience in China who are at risk of being executed by vital organ explantation. For two decades, the Chinese government has encouraged and supported the development of a huge transplant infrastructure and industry fueled by monetizing segments of its own people through mass, cold genocide.

In this first newsletter of the new year, we detail accumulating evidence regarding China’s unethical transplantation practices, unsubstantiated claims of transplant reform, unethical medical experimentation and the epidemic of human rights abuses in China. In addition, we highlight international actions taken by governments against China’s medical genocide as well as proposed solutions for how the world can influence China’s actions and stem the insidious tide of the Chinese Communist Party's infiltration into all aspects of Western society.

We, the DAFOH newsletter team, hope that this information will encourage our readers to confront the truth about human organ transplantation in China, develop compassion for the victims, and take action to help stop the ongoing daily slaughter of innocents in operating rooms across China.

Sincerely,

Ann F. Corson, M.D.

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Forensic Statistical Analysis Casts Doubt on Credibility of Transplant Reform in China

A new study of China’s public organ donation program uses forensic statistical methods on key deceased organ donation data sets from 2010 to 2018 to determine whether the claimed successes of China’s transplant reforms were based on “sound and credible accretive data” derived from real organ donations and transplantation activity in China or on artificially manufactured data.

The analysis was prompted by China’s ongoing lack of transparency regarding official transplant data, the regime’s continued attempts to whitewash its transplant system by providing conflicting messages to the international community and the fact that large monetary incentives overshadow the transplant landscape in China.

The researchers found that the data presented by the China Organ Transplant Response System (COTRS) and the Chinese Red Cross follow a precise quadratic formula, suggesting that the two data sets were manufactured and manipulated by human direction rather than by chance. Some data sets were contradictory or implausible, suggesting they were manipulated to conform to predetermined quotas. The authors conclude that transplant data sets were indeed systematically falsified and manipulated to establish fixed goals.

This article, currently published as a preprint, is undergoing peer-review pending its formal publication in a medical journal.

Suspected Ethical Violations Behind Demand for Retractions of Over 400 Peer-Reviewed Articles

A recent BMJ Open article claims documentation of donor sources in papers published by Chinese transplant professionals does not comply with internationally accepted ethical standards. The authors conclude, “The transplant community has failed to implement ethical standards banning publication of research using material from executed prisoners... Researchers and clinicians who use this body of research risk complicity by implicitly accepting Chinese methods of organ procurement. We call for immediate retraction of all papers reporting research based on use of organs from executed prisoners, and an international summit to develop future policy for handling Chinese transplant research.”

Read the full article here.

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Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience Held in Britain

The China Tribunal, an Independent People’s Tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, the lead prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, announced an interim judgement that they are “sure beyond a reasonable doubt" that China has been practicing forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of victims.

Read the full article here.

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The United States, Canada, the Czech Republic, and Israel Act Against Organ Harvesting

Combating China’s unethical practices from within Chinese territory is not feasible for Western countries. Therefore, countries efforts are best focused on minimizing their own citizens’ participation in transplant tourism to China. Over the past few months, the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic and Israel have taken action: President Trump was urged to use the global Magnitsky Act to sanction individual perpetrators of transplant crimes; the Canadian Senate passed Bill S-240, now in House committee, which makes transplant tourism a criminal offense; members of the Czech Republic's parliament are drafting a new organ transplant tourism law limiting transplant tourism to China similar to those already adopted by other countries; and Israel barred a famous Chinese transplant surgeon from attending a high profile conference.

Read the full article here.

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Australia Explores Opt-Out Option to Counter Organ Trafficking

As part of an ongoing inquiry into Human Organ Trafficking and Organ Transplant Tourism, the Australian Parliament is considering a change from an opt-in organ donation system to an opt-out system as a means to boost organ donations and prevent Australians from traveling to countries with unethical organ procurement practices or buying organs on the black market.

China’s growing foreign transplant tourism trade, the opacity of its organ procurement practices and transplant practices is driving development of an opt-out donation program in Australia amid concerns of ethical and moral abuse.

Read the full article here.

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The Worsening Human Rights Tragedy Unfolding in Xinjiang

An event held at the House of Lords in London aimed at investigating why one million Uighur Muslims in the Chinese district of Xinjiang are currently being held in labor camps. Credible accounts of mass collection of biometric and DNA data from an estimated 18 million ethnic Uighurs followed by a campaign of mass incarceration and forcible transported to other regions throughout China raises serious concerns that Uighur muslims are among the latest victims of forced organ harvesting for China’s ever expanding and highly lucrative transplant industry.

Read the full article here.

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Unethical Gene Editing Triggers Public Condemnation

The creation of the world’s first genetically edited human babies by a Chinese geneticist has caused international outrage and been deemed a "failure of self-regulation in the scientific community." The research was initially supported by the Chinese government and funded by the Southern University of Science and Technology. Only after global condemnation did both the hospital administrators and the Chinese government distance themselves from the researcher, accusing him of misconduct.

Read the full article here.

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Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Spreads Overseas

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to exert soft power in the United States and other Western nations. According to the November 2018 Hoover Institution report, the CCP’s international reach has expanded since China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, took power in 2012. His governmental policies not only seek to redefine China’s role as a global leader, but also to assert that the ‘China option’ is a more efficient developmental model than liberal democracy.

Read the full article here

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News in Review

DAFOH Executive Director brings needed attention to China’s hidden behemoth

In his recent article “China’s Desperate Attempts to Hide the Genocide that Drives its Transplant Industry,” Dr. Torsten Trey, DAFOH Executive Director, explains how China’s misleading donor registry statistics and pervasive data manipulation and fabrication have led to “the uncritical acceptance of the Chinese narrative by some spheres within the international community have created an environment of impunity where crimes against humanity such as the state-driven cold Genocide against Falun Gong was able to build.”

American Medical Association considers resolution on forced organ harvesting

The Medical Society of the District of Columbia submitted a resolution at the AMA Annual Meeting calling for an “independent, interdisciplinary, transparent investigation” of transplant medicine in China; for the US government to protect transplant tourists by blacklisting specific countries; and for the implementation of measures within the US medical community to prevent complicity in ethical violations. Raymond Scalettar, former chair of the AMA board of trustees, said that the resolution was an important step in ending this cold genocide.

Evidence supports a “damning verdict” for China’s human organ transplant industry

On February 7th, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion by British human rights activist Benedict Rogers who describes China’s transplant industry as a “nightmare” where organs for transplant are sourced from nonconsenting prisoners of conscience. He claims that “China’s numbers don’t add up” as the actual volume of transplant operations performed in China far outnumber the number of officially recorded voluntary donors. Rogers enumerates varied evidence indicating the only plausible explanation is that organs from prisoners of conscience rather than organs from voluntary donations form the foundation of China’s exponential growth in transplant medicine. 

Journalist challenges governments to re-evaluate engagement with China

While testifying before the European Court of Human Rights, Ethan Gutmann, author of The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting and China’s Secret Solution to its Dissident Problem, detailed the paradoxical relationship many countries have with China. Vanguard’s publication asks, “If we hold the regime like this in such high regard, what does it say about us? We condemn North Korea for its human rights abuses. Yet we view China as a trading partner and as a part of the global community, and agree to their censorship rules when doing business inside China.”

Actress says governments have more leverage over China than they may realize

Anastasia Lin, actress, activist and 2015 Miss World Canada, was in New Zealand for a showing of the film, “The Bleeding Edge.” Lin stars as a young teacher persecuted for her spiritual beliefs who became a victim of forced organ harvesting in China. During media appearances, Lin stressed that the world’s governments do have the power to make a significant impact on China’s human rights abuses, especially its organ harvesting crimes, as long as they work with coordinated effort.

Controversy follows exhibit of human remains viewed by millions around the world

Aisha Dow from The Sydney Morning Herald takes an in depth look at the Real Bodies exhibition of plasticized human corpses and questions where the bodies come from. Du to uncertainty regarding the source of specimens, the Australian parliament has been urged to strengthen laws to prevent the use of human remains for commercial reasons without proof of prior consent from the donor or next-of-kin.         

Organs extracted from Chinese woman who dies suddenly while in custody

A 64-year-old woman, Ma Guilan from Qinhuangdao City in Hebei Province, was incarcerated by police for speaking to people about the spiritual practice, Falun Gong. Two months later, she fell ill and was transferred to Qinhuangdao Police Hospital where she died two hours later. Unknown officials came to the hospital and extracted her organs. It is possible that her organs were procured for China’s illicit organ transplant industry.

Chinese media reports rapid growth in organ donations this year

Chinese News Service, China’s second largest state news mouth piece, claims that 18,000 organs were donated in the first 11 months of 2018.  While independent researchers have questioned the validity of officially reported statistics, this article demonstrates the regime’s sustained efforts to explain how so many transplants could take place in China without relying on organs from executed prisoners, a practice that supposedly ended in 2015.

China forecasted to lead global transplant economy in near future

A recent forecast presents a complete assessment of the international transplant market with future trends, current growth factors, historical data, as well as statistically supported and industry validated market data. China is a major contributor to the global organ transplant economy, estimated to exceed 51 billion dollars by 2025. Both Chinese and Indian markets for organ transplants are the most competitive. In the United States, a kidney transplant may cost $100,000 whereas in China, the same operation may cost $70,000 or be as low as $5,000 in India.

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