Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The Dark Side of Organ Harvests

The Falun Gong protest every so often at Federal Plaza. Today they were handing out mini-pamphlets regarding the use of Falun Gong prisoners for organ transplants. They don't survive these operations as usually all of the transplantable organs are targets for harvesting. This is a serious matter and the subject of an investigation that may, or may not, accomplish anything.

I had heard that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia trafficked in organs, although it occurred very much under the table and immigrants were often targeted by well off Saudis. This news from China is very sad if true. The pamphlet alleges that China is home to "organ tourists", which raises the expected issues about the ethics of the Chinese leadership. According to the pamphlet, the National Kidney Foundation and the British Transplantation Society, along with Congressman Dana Rohrbacher and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, have spoken against the practice.

If you know anything about this, do speak up.

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