Chinese Regime Indirectly Admits Organ Harvesting: Bioethics Professor

(Jennifer did this interview in 2012.  Still worth watching.)

Professor Arthur Caplan heads the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. He said on Tuesday that China’s Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu may have confirmed what some rights group have long suspected - that the Chinese regime has been harvesting organs from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners as part of the regime’s persecution of the spiritual practice.  

Huang acknowledged last week that executed prisoners remained the primary source of organs for the country’s expanding organ transplant industry. 

[Professor Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics, Univ. of Pennsylvania]:

“I found it startling, because no one has actually said anything from that official source that high up about the use of prisoners.”

Allegations of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners surfaced in 2006, though the Chinese regime has always denied the practice. The then spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Mao Qunan said at the time that news about the regime executing prisoners for their organs were “maliciously fabricated.”

Professor Caplan says Vice Minister Huang has now indirectly confirmed that the regime has been harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners. 

[Professor Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics, Univ. of Pennsylvania]: 

 “Look, I think you can make the connections that…they are using prisoners, and they need prisoners who are relatively healthy, they need prisoners who are relatively younger. It doesn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to assume that some Falun Gong [practitioners] are going to be among those who are going to be killing for parts. It just follows, because remember you can’t take very old people as sources of organs and you can’t take people who are very sick. They, Falun Gong, are in part younger, and by lifestyle, somewhat healthier. I would be astounded if they weren’t using some of those prisoners as sources of organs.”

Professor Caplan has led calls for the international community to boycott research and reports from China related to organ transplants. 

According to official statistics, around 10,000 organ transplants are carried out in China each year. Although the Chinese regime says consent from executed prisoners is required before their organs can be taken, rights groups have widely questioned the validity of that claim.