Monday, September 19, 2011

Glasgow's twin city is selling living prisoners' organs to health tourists


Published Date: 05 September 2011
HOSPITALS in Glasgow's twin city in China sell organs taken illegally from innocent people executed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), campaigners claimed last night.
Ahead of an international conference today in Glasgow about organ harvesting, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee said the illegal practice is rife in Dalian, a city in north east China with which Scotland's largest city has been twinned since 1987.

Delegates attending the event - hosted by Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) - will hear claims the Chinese regime removes organs from prisoners who are still alive and that wealthy "health tourists" travel to China to buy kidneys and livers available on the black market.

Speakers include, David Matas, a Canadian human rights lawyer who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year for exposing China's illegal organ trade.

The victims of China's organ business are said to be mainly people arrested for practising Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned by the CCP. Falun The CCP claims Falun Gong is a dangerous cult and outlawed it for "illegal activities" in 1999.

Mr Matas is co-author of Bloody Harvest - The Killing of Falun Gong for their Organs, for which he received his Nobel nomination last year. His investigation with David Kilgour, a former Canadian secretary of state for Asia-Pacific, revealed that in addition to using organs from executed prisoners, China has gone to the point of harvesting organs from living "prisoners of conscience".

Mr Matas said that between 2000 and 2005 there were 41,500 transplants carried out in China whereby the only explanation for the sourcing was imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners.

He said: "China acknowledges organs for transplants come overwhelmingly from prisoners. Their claim is that prisoners consent before execution. We concluded the bulk of these prisoners are Falun Gong practitioners who do not consent and have not been sentenced to death."

The sale of human organs is illegal in China but the black market has flourished over the past decade. In 2008, Glasgow Lord Provost Bob Winter led a delegation to Dalian and discussions are currently under way to link schools in the cities.

Yuyu Williamson, a Chinese human rights activist living in Glasgow, said there was evidence organ harvesting is widespread.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "Illegal organ harvesting is a deplorable practice. Human and civil rights are a fundamental part of the council's outlook and these issues were raised by the Lord Provost when he was in China in 2008."

The Chinese Embassy declined to comment.


  • Last Updated: 04 September 2011 9:16 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh                         

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