Organ transplant claims rejected

夏爱丽

By Guo Kai and Wu Yan | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated:2017-02-15

An Australian expert inthe human organ trade says there's been a massive drop in the numbers offoreigners coming to China for an organ transplant.

Campbell Fraser, fromGriffith University, spoke at the Vatican Summit on Organ Trafficking andTransplant Tourism last week and told chinadaily.com.cn that he had interviewedmany patients "who attempted to buy an organ in China but were refused bythe Chinese hospitals."

For the first time,Chinese representatives have been invited to the summit to discuss itsexperience of combating organ commercialism.

China has undertaken a10-year reform process to reduce dependence on executed inmates as the primarysource for organ transplants.

A public organ donationsystem has been launched in line with international practice, and in 2015 thecountry announced that the use of organs from executed inmates had ceased.

Using organs from executedinmates became a major source of criticism of China by some individuals orgroups, such as Falun Gong. They even accused China of extracting organs from"prisoners of conscience".

"In the days beforethe summit, the FLG embarked on a campaign of emailing participants,"Fraser said. The content of the emails made false allegations against Chineserepresentatives.

Fraser said that theauthors of these emails -- academics, lawyers, doctors, and politicians basedprimarily in Australia, Canada, USA and Europe – are not "independent"researchers as they claim.

"They have thespecific intention of attacking the Chinese government, and have decided to useso-called "organ harvesting" as their main weapon... as they thinkthat it will be difficult to prove that it does not happen," Fraser said.

Fraser has investigatedhuman organ trafficking since 2008 and has personally met over 1000 peopleinvolved in the illegal business, including doctors, buyers, sellers andbrokers, and consulted several governments, health departments and police organizations.

After conducting his owninvestigations, he said he has concluded that the FLG claims are fraudulent.

He also believed that theFLG met the criteria of a cult because they believe in one person withsupernatural powers and "practitioners" refuse medical treatment forthemselves and their children.

He said he was recentlyinvited to both New York and Taipei to meet doctors who explained to him thatthey have a problem with FLG "practitioners" refusing treatment.

"There was even acase reported to me of a FLG practitioner refusing medical treatment for heryoung daughter," he said.

When academics havereported things against the FLG, Fraser says they are harassed.

"The FLG harass mebecause they know that I am a threat to them, because I know what reallyhappens in China," he said. "They are doing all they can to silenceme, by trying to stop me attending and presenting at internationalconferences."

"In August 2016 theFLG tried to stop me speaking at the international transplant conference inHong Kong. When legal means failed, they attempted to physically stop me fromspeaking by shouting at me when I started to present. What made thisparticularly ridiculous was that my presentation was not even specificallyabout China, it was about Special Interest Groups in general."

China is stillimplementing major reforms in organ transplantation, and significant progresscontinues to be made in this transformation process.

Fraser said he hoped"the international transplant community will continue to support ourChinese colleagues in this vital work."