LIFE DIGEST: CHINA’S HARVEST
By Tom Strode
BP News - Nashville,TN,USA

Feb 5, 2007

WASHINGTON (BP)--

CHINA’S HARVEST -- The Chinese military is harvesting organs on a grand scale from prison inmates while they are still alive, according to a new report.

Dozens of hospitals and jails in China are involved in the ghastly trade, mostly in organs removed from Falun Gong adherents, the authors said, according to the website news.com.au. David Kilgour, former Canadian secretary of state for the Asia Pacific region, and human rights lawyer David Matas wrote the report, which was released Feb. 1.

The Chinese government denied the charges.

The report said Chinese military hospitals began selling organs for transplants after the government reduced their funding in the 1980s.

“The involvement of the People’s Liberation Army in these transplants is widespread,” Kilgour said at a news conference, according to news.com.au.

Interviews with organ recipients in 30 countries and Canadian hospital personnel who treated more than 100 people who had suspicious transplants in China are included in the report.

In its recommendations, the report urged pharmaceutical companies to refrain from selling organ anti-rejection drugs to China.

The Falun Gong is a meditation sect that has been harshly oppressed by the Chinese government.