【器官移植台日美國會論壇】Torsen

good morning honorable members of the National Diet of Japan and other guests it is my honor to speak before you today first I would like to extend my apologies that I cannot stand before you in person I've been in Japan before and as someone who was born in Germany there are many aspects of the Japanese culture and society that I truly appreciate today, we are meeting here for the purpose to get a better understanding about a tragedy that is occurring within the medical community and which needs our intervention to stop it after a brief introduction into forced organ harvesting from living persons in China I will continue to present to you legislations and laws that several nations and parliaments have taken in 2006, the world community learned about forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China doctors in China removed corneas kidneys livers and other organs from these living prisoners of conscience because they have been subject to a brutal persecution since 1999 which later has expanded to a slow moving genocide after the Chinese government realized that it could achieve its goal to exterminate Falun Gong through this method it quadrupled the number of its transplant hospitals and later also expanded the practice to Uighurs and other prisoners of conscience to serve the requests from other patients over the years we were asked about evidence and we collected so much evidence that we started to organize the pieces of evidence in five categories first annual transplant numbers in China is estimated a 30,000-50,000 transplants per year annual organ donation numbers in China the numbers of registered organ donors have been manipulated third the wait time and availability of organs in China about 2-4 weeks for any type of organ in special situations organs were provided within 1-2 days forth rapid growth of the transplant infrastructure Between 1999 and 2006 China quadrupled the number of transplant centers it equates to having confidence in an abundant source of organs in the future fifth witness testimonies speak of blood tests and medical examinations forced organ harvesting does not only mean to remove organs but in order to avoid traces and reduce evidence the victims were killed which would be relatively easy to conceal and hide since they were prisoners of conscience or dissidents and nobody would inquire where they were with about a million of prisoners of conscience at any time the pool of available organs appeared endless the access was so vast, that even foreigners were accepted for transplantation in China people from the western hemisphere the middle east, but also from Asia have come to China to receive organs for money patients from South Korea, Taiwan, but also from Japan have gone to China to receive organs a key feature of China's transplant system is that patients do not wait for organs that were freely donated as an altruistic gesture but in reverse that China provides organs on demand that means that it takes only about two weeks to receive a kidney or Islam pays $10,000 extra in two days this ‘on demand’ system is nowhere else found in the world this creates a legal challenge: the patients who travel to China to receive an organ are those who are triggering the killing of the organ donors if the patient would not have asked for an organ the ‘victim donor’ would not be selected for organ harvesting this means that there is a legal concern that transplant patients are complicit in the crime of ‘organ pillaging’ and murder in other words, the legislators of each country need to take action to protect their own citizens from being dragged into a crime by China's transplant system forced organ harvesting is a crime against humanity over the past 25 years more than a million Falun Gong prisoners of conscience were killed by the Chinese transplant profession in 2017, the British Financial Times published an interview with the President of the Chinese Supreme Court he stated that the CCP is technically above the Chinese Constitution which means the CCP can enact any type of law to pursue any type of action if the CCP declares that forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience is a legal practice then it is considered legal inside China while at the same time it violates any international law and ethical standards in other words, it is impossible to wait for China to change the practice and therefore there is a need for sovereign countries to respond to the crime of forced organ harvesting by passing their own laws in the next five minutes I would like to share exemplary legislations against Forced Organ Harvesting that were adopted in Israel, Spain, Taiwan, Italy, United States and States within the United States these examples might serve as inspirations as each parliament and country has different situations and might pursue different solutions first, Israel Israel was among the first states to pass a law that would protect their citizens from being complicit and forced organ harvesting in 2008, the Knesset passed a law, the Organ Transplant Act that would prohibit the Israeli health insurance system to pay for Israeli citizens for organ transplant in China the law would further ban the purchase sale and brokerage of organs in Israel shortly after the law was implemented no more Israeli patients travel to China for an organ transplant second, Spain in 2010 the Spanish parliament amended the criminal code to stop transplant tourism and organ trafficking organ trafficking was declared a felony with penalties of up to 12 years in prison including for people who “encourage, promote, facilitate or advertise the procurement of illegal human organs” third, Taiwan a Taiwanese law from 2006 declared that a physician would commit a crime if he introduced patients to organ brokers or referred patients to countries where organ brokers was practiced in 2012 the Taiwanese Legislative Yuan passed a follow up law according to which, major medical institutions and physicians have to report to the Department of Health if one of their patients received a transplant organ in a foreign country this was an important step as it shifted the responsibilities from individual doctors to hospitals in 2015, the Taiwanese Legislative Yuan addressed forced organ harvesting again for a third time and passed further amendments to its Taiwan Human Organ Transplantation Act which prohibited the use of organs from executed prisoners and banned transplant tourism doctors who were involved in illegal organ transplant could lose their medical licenses furthermore, patients had to provide legal proof of the source of the organs that they have received the Taiwan example shows that it is important to start with at least one legislation and that the law can continuously be improved forth, Italy in 2016, the Italian Parliament passed a bill that would punish anyone who illegally sold organs from living people the key component of this legislation was the introduction of a new Article to the Penal Code the Article 601-bis which was the “trafficking in organs taken from a living person” the law stated that “anyone who illicitly trades, sells, buys or in any way and in any capacity, procures or treats organs or parts of organs taken from a living person is punished with imprisonment from three to twelve years and with a fine of €50,000 per up to €300,000 if the act is committed by a person who practices a health profession the sentence is followed by a perpetual interdiction from the exercise of the profession” fifth, the United States on May 5th, 2025 the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress passed the bill H.R. 1540 this bill proposes very comprehensive measures against force organ harvesting in China this case would become policy of the United States to avoid any cooperation with China in the organ transplantation field while the Chinese Communist Party remains in power The United States will also take “appropriate measures, including using relevant sanctions authorities to coerce the Chinese Communist Party to end any state-sponsored organ harvesting campaign” The United States would “work with allies, partners and multilateral institutions to coordinate closely with the international community on targeted sanctions and visa restrictions” the United States would further prevent or revoke visas of doctors who were involved in forced organ harvesting in China furthermore, the “Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the National Institutes of health shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the organ transplant policies and practices of the People's Republic of China” the report should include a summary de jure and de facto policies toward organ transplantation in the People's Republic of China including with respect to prisoners of conscience and other prisoners” and numbers of organ transplantations and organ donors furthermore, the report should compile a “list of all United States grants over the past 10 years that have supported research on the organ transplantation in China or in collaboration between a Chinese and a United States entity” sixth, Local States and Provinces legislations against force organ harvesting are not only passed on national level but can also be enacted on local state or provincial level in 2023, the State of Texas passed the state law S.B.1040 which included amendments to prohibit a health insurance in Texas to cover expenses for a human organ transplant or post-transplant care if a transplant operation is performed in China or if the donor organ was procured in China or another country known to have participated in forced organ harvesting after its passage in the Texas State Congress similar legislations were subsequently also enacted in Idaho, Utah, Tennessee, and Arizona in summary, legislations related to forced organ harvesting were either tied to existing law and adopted amendments or were implemented as new laws to address the unprecedented crime of forced organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Southern Mongolian and other prisoners of conscience in China in my closing, I would like to highlight that my work with the NGO Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting started on the findings of violations of medical ethics during my 18 years of work on this issue I learned to understand that forced organ harvesting is not an isolated medical topic but a reflection of the CCP government in Beijing the inaction by the international community over the past years have rather emboldened the CCP to extend its unethical practices we were all witnesses to the COVID pandemic we have seen China's bold actions within the South China Sea in which not only Taiwan, the Philippines but also other countries were challenged China's influence in parliamentary elections in Taiwan and South Korea is another example and could also affect the Philippines or Japan in the future continuous inaction related to forced organ harvesting by the international community might encourage China to proceed with even bolder and more offensive measures in this regard, legislations that address the forced organ human harvesting of victims in China are not only an approach that will find support by the international community but also strengthen the sovereignty of Japan I wish you all ‘wisdom and success’ thank you