On February 25th a web based conference, prepared by 115 organizations and co-hosted by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse (ETAC) and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, brought together experts, legislators, and various civil organizations from all over the world to discuss the state of organ harvesting in Communist China.
Key note speaker Sir Geoffry Nice, who oversaw a peoples tribunal regarding forced organ harvesting in China, presented an overview of that tribunal and of a future tribunal for the genocide of Uighurs. He outlined the obligations of human rights bodies in the historical context of the time after World War II.
Dr. Wendy Rogers, Professor of Clinical Ethics at Macquarie University in Sydney and member of ETAC, spoke on the industrial scale of forced organ harvesting by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and outlined the ethical obligations for stopping these abuses. She stated that institutions now have clear knowledge of the abuse and must end cooperation with any CCP transplant doctors.
Journalist and author Ethan Gutmann outlined the logistics of organ harvesting from Uighurs with extensive photographs of incinerators, airports, and hospitals, coincident with huge increases in organ transplants being performed in hospitals near Uighur labor camps.
Dr. Sean Lin, who served in the U.S. military medical service corps and survived the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, pointed out that the CCP continues to expand organ harvesting in spite of increased scrutiny from the international community.
Human rights lawyer David Matas explored whether law has a role in ending organ harvesting in China and how that could be manifested.
Kristina Olney of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation spoke on recent legislation in the United States that focuses on organ harvesting.
The remaining portion of the webinar was devoted to individual legislators from around the world who discussed their countries’ legislative activities with respect to forced organ harvesting.
The participants took questions at the end.
