Forced Organ Harvesting in China - A Research Paper by Sylvia Wang
Introduction Over the past two decades, the People’s Republic of China has built one of the largest organ transplantation systems in the world. China’s organ transplant industry emerged within a matter of years despite a paucity of donations, and concerns regarding the sources of the organs have existed since the industry’s inception. Chinese officials have provided shifting explanations for organ sources over the years as investigations revealed mounting evidence of abuses. In 2006, allegations first came forward that prisoners of conscience were being killed for their organs in China.(1)(2) This sparked investigations by researchers all around the world, including former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific, David Kilgour, Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, and London-based investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann. Kilgour and Matas compiled their findings in the book Bloody Harvest where they came to “the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true.”(3)