08 February 2007

The distilled form of evil

Via Mick Hartley.

"The disgusting form of evil". This is how Canada's former secretary of state for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas called harvesting organs from unwilling live prison inmates, that seems to become a common practice in China.

China's military is harvesting organs from unwilling live prison inmates, mostly Falungong practitioners, for transplants on a large scale - including to foreign recipients- according to a study.

The report's authors - Canada's former secretary of state for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas - implicated dozens of hospitals and jails throughout China in July, after a two-month investigation.

Chinese officials denied those allegations.

Mr Matas and Mr Kilgour's second report, released today, includes interviews with organ recipients in 30 countries and Canadian hospital staff who cared for more than 100 patients who had undergone suspicious transplant surgeries in China.

"The involvement of the People's Liberation Army in these transplants is widespread,'' Mr Kilgour said at a press conference.
The atrocity that hitherto was a fodder for science fiction stories and movies and, according to some sporadic rumors, a side line of business for some criminals*, became now an established procedure in a country that is practically unassailable for any transgression of basic human rights. I can understand that in their fury David Kilgour and David Mata offer a solution that will punish the wrong side:
They also asked countries to post travel advisories warning about China's alleged organ harvest, asked states to cease offering follow-up care for patients who had dubious organ transplants in China...

The authors said states should enact legislation to ban citizens from traveling to China for organ transplants from unwilling donors, although they admitted that such cases would be difficult to prosecute.
I can understand their drive to stop the unspeakable, but to punish sick and dying people, who in their despair are ready to do anything for their salvation, is not the way. The only moral and just way to stop the atrocity is to punish the perpetrators. An while our life on this planet is dictated by realpolitik, there will be no stopping the evil.

(*) The only case that was undertaken by some of the media seriously was the persistent rumor that Israeli doctors are harvesting organs from Palestinian children. In this case one cannot blame the press (some of it, at least) for being indifferent.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com

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