Japan: Medical Professionals Sign DAFOH Petition

Medical Professionals in Japan Sign DAFOH Petition Supporting an End to Forced Organ Harvesting

 

The 13th Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation, and the 49th Annual Congress of the Japan Society for Transplantation were held September 2-7, 2013 at the Kyoto International Conference Center in Japan. More than 2,000 doctors and medical professionals from Asian countries attended the conference. Japan has been slow to acknowledge the global concern of forced organ harvesting in China.

Constituents and human rights activists were a strong presence at this years events and collected signatures on the street in support of the DAFOH Petition to the UN. Dozens of people, some being Falun Gong practitioners, quietly stood along the roads leading to the meeting venue and the hotels where congress attendees stayed. They held banners with messages in both English and Japanese announcing their protest of forced organ harvesting atrocities in China.

The activists called upon the medical professionals attending the congress to pay attention to the CCP’s crimes against humanity. They encouraged doctors to sign the petition initiated by Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) which calls for the UN Human Rights High Commissioner to help end the atrocities.

David Matas, renowned Canadian human rights lawyer and co-author of the book Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs, spoke at the conference and had a poster presentation of his study and investigation into the Chinese Communist regime’s forced organ harvesting practices. Matas was well received and his presentation was covered by the media.

During a separate seminar, the Annual Conference of the Pharmaceutical Association

held on September 5 in Osaka, forced organ harvesting and ethical concerns were presented and David Matas spoke calling on the Japanese authorities to enact laws related to organ transplantation. He asked that the authorities deny entry of Chinese doctors who have participated in harvesting organs in China. Attendee former Japanese Congressman Furuhashi Kunio supported Matas’ proposal.