Reports have emerged from China that internal organs such as liver, kidneys and eye corneas are being harvested for the purpose of ‘transplant tourism.’
As Catholic Online reports, a new documentary ‘Hard to Believe’ has revealed that imprisoned practitioners of the Falun Gong faith have had their body parts harvested, following rumors that were largely ignored until now.
The documentary sees first-hand testimonies from both former detainees and the surgeons who operated. It is set to air online this week.
Image Credit: William Murphy (Flickr)
Documentary director Ken Stone says: “A number of people have come up with such strong evidence, but they are consistently ignored.”
Surgeons are encouraged to perform unethical live organ harvesting procedures. It is thought that some 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been murdered in order to harvest their organs.
The live organ harvesting industry in China is said to be worth billions of dollars, however, with just 37 people registered as organ donors in the country, it seems inevitable that many of these are obtained illegitimately.
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice based on meditation that began in the 1990’s, quickly attracting a large following. The government feared the size of the organization and made moves to crackdown, primarily by detaining its sect leaders.
Chinese authorities have used imprisonment, propaganda and thought reform in attempts to repress the faith.
The topic of illegal organ harvesting has been in the news recently in the US, following the Planned Parenthood scandal that revealed the family planning clinic have (allegedly) been illegally selling aborted fetuses.
In Thailand, human trafficking law has played a part in the recent banning of commercial surrogacy – which was officially outlawed in August. This relates to human harvesting laws which prevent the sale of human ovum or eggs. Since surrogacy involves human eggs, it could be considered illegal under these terms.
Criminal defense lawyers in Thailand Chaninat and Leeds have decades of experience successfully handling sensitive cases.
However, the situation in China seems to be more than just a human trafficking issue. The treatment of Falan Gong members is torture based on expression of beliefs, and is an attack not only on religious freedom but also on free thought and free speech.
As Investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann, whose research inspired the documentary, said: “There’s a general tendency to not want to look atrocities in the face. We acknowledge a terrible atrocity only after it’s over. Look at how long it took before the Holocaust was recognized.”
As Gutmann says, what seems to be truly shocking is how long it has taken for people to face up to the fact this is happening. Rumors started in 2006, and here we are almost a decade later finally brave enough to look at it square on.
China has, in the past, banned documentaries it believes to be harmful to the country’s image. For example, in March of this year a documentary on the topic of China’s smog problem was blocked for viewing.
It will be interesting to see whether Hard to Believe will receive the same fate.
Check out the trailer here:
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