On March 21, 2013, the Australian Senate unanimously passed a motion urging the Australian government to oppose the practice of unethical organ harvesting in China.
The motion was introduced before the Upper House of the Australian Parliament by Senator John Madigan from the Democratic Labor Party.
The motion called for the Australian government to support the actions of the European Parliament and the United Nations in addressing the practice of organ trafficking. One day before the motion was introduced to the floor, the Parliament held a private briefing on the topic of forced organ harvesting in China with David Kilgour as the keynote speaker. In November 2012, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Committee invited investigative researcher and author Ethan Gutmann to present his findings.
The motion comes at a time when David Shoebridge is proposing a new transplant and organ trafficking law. More than 70,000 people in New South Wales (NSW) have signed a petition that was calling for new laws related to forced organ harvesting. This is one of the largest petition signature drives in NSW.
David Shoebridge stated: “The size of this petition and the public response to this issue has been staggering. The number of people signing this petition is more than three times as many people as signed all the petitions presented to the NSW Upper House in 2012.”
