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Testimonies and complicity in the forced organ harvesting trade

  • Published on
    September 17, 2023
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  • Category:
    Organ Trafficking
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Envir Tothi and Grace Song share their horrific experiences encountering China’s $1 billion-a-year illegal organ harvesting trade, via The Daily Mail.

Envir Tothi – “we were trained to follow orders without asking why”

Enver Tothi, an Oncology surgeon working in the Uyghur region in 1995, described the time he was forced to remove the organs of a man who was shot but still breathing, then forbidden to ever talk about what happened.

On a quiet day at work, two chief surgeons called Tothi into their office and asked if he “would like to do something wild.” He was then sent to Western Mountain execution ground.

On arrival, Tothi saw many bodies lying on the ground, and he heard gunshots. He was told to “hurry up and extract the liver and kidneys.” One man was still breathing and when Tothi asked whether he should apply anesthesia, the alleged reply was, “There is no need.”

“When the operation was finished, he was simply told: ‘Remember nothing happened today.’ No one ever talked about it since… He did not know why the man was shot, who he was, or what he had been recruited to do.”

Grace Song – “awaiting the day, she believed, her organs would be illegally harvested”

Grace Song, a former lawyer, shared her experience living in a cell in a forced labor camp in Beijing where she was interrogated, tortured, and awaiting the day, she believed, her organs would be illegally harvested.

In 2010 Song was removed from her home after it was found out by the state that she subscribed to a form of religion called Falun Gong, a practice that combines meditation and moral philosophy. For two decades the Chinese Communist Party had been trying to eradicate the religion.

Those who were found to be practicing were tortured, brainwashed, raped, killed, and subject to illegal organ harvesting by agents of the state.

Song testified:

“I was forced to have a detailed medical examination of my physical body, including X-ray of my lungs and blood testing. They also checked my female organs. They examined all over my skin, asking me about any small scars they found… I was not told about the results of any of the tests.”

Song was released after two years of imprisonment thankfully without any of her organs illegally removed, but unfortunately, with the lasting psychological scars of suffering tremendous abuse and trauma.

The UK could have ended its complicity in illegal organ harvesting, but it chose not to

Both Tothi and Song now live in the UK where talks of the illegal organ harvesting trade and how the UK is complicit have come to light. On September 13, 2023, the UK government voted on an amendment to the Procurement Bill:

“The procurement bill organ harvesting amendment is designed to exclude suppliers located in a country at high risk of forced organ harvesting from being awarded a public contract involving any device or equipment intended for use in organ transplant medicine or activities.”

Unfortunately, the movement was voted down. Lord Hunt, who tabled the amendment said:

The world is becoming increasingly aware of the Chinese Communist Party’s multi-million-pound business of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. And yet, presented with an opportunity to prevent complicity in these crimes, the Government has chosen to reject our proposed amendment.”

Susie Hughes, Executive Director of the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, and the main partner on Freedom United’s campaign to end organ harvesting said, “The UK Government needs to move quickly to tighten legislation to protect UK citizens from inadvertent complicity.”

Between 60, 000 and 100,000 organ transplants are estimated to be carried out each year, many taking place without consent, reports the Daily Mail.

The UK government forfeited an amazing opportunity to inform and engage UK citizens on the severity of this issue. Further, they also let down Falon Gong and Uyghur people who without rhyme or reason were and continue to be tortured and killed for the purpose of having their organs illegally sold.

Sign our petition to end illegal organ harvesting today and put a stop to this despicable practice.

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Lakshmanan M
Lakshmanan M
7 months ago

It is a pity that organs are HARVESTED without the consent of the individuals concerned. It is condemnable and it should be stopped at any cost.

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