Ottawa urged to stop Canadians travelling to China for transplants

 
Kirstin Endemann
CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen


Thursday, July 06, 2006


OTTAWA -- The Canadian government should revoke the passports of Canadians 
suspected of travelling to China for transplants and deny visas to Chinese 
doctors wanting to study transplants here, says a contentious report 
written by a former MP.
The report, to be released today, supports allegations China has been 
engaged in a program to harvest the organs of Falun Gong practioners. It 
was conducted by former Liberal and Independent MP David Kilgour and human 
rights lawyer David Matas at the request of the Coalition to Investigate 
the Persecution of Falun Gong in China and Ottawa-based Falun Dafa 
Association and with the support of seven sitting MPs.
In the report, Kilgour concludes the accuracy of allegations that detained 
followers of Falun Gong a religion banned in China since 1999 are having 
their kidneys, heart, liver and corneas harvested without consent. They 
are then cremated.
"We've both been very shaken up by these stories. It's hard to believe 
this can go on anywhere in the world in this new century where human 
beings are supposed to matter," Kilgour said.
Kilgour said his investigation was primarily made up of interviews, after 
applications to travel to China to conduct research were denied.
One of the key witnesses was the wife of a surgeon, neither of whom are 
Falun Gong practitioners, who confessed to having removed more than 2,000 
corneas of unwilling Falun Gong detainees over a two-year period, Kilgour 
said.
"She said he started having nightmares and that is when he confessed. And 
she details how it was done how many a day, what anaesthetic they used. 
And what happened to him when he tried to stop."
Chinese embassy spokeswoman Wenxing Zuo categorically denied there was any 
policy to forcibly harvest organs, dismissing such as "rumours spread by 
the Falun Gong."
She said organs are harvested from executed prisoners, but only with 
written consent.
"And relatives can overturn that at any time," Zuo said. "Even if there is 
consent, they can change their mind at any time."
Zuo said China adopted a domestic law "explicitly banning" the sale of 
human organs last month but has followed the United Nations principle 
since 1991 prohibiting the sale of human organs and requiring written 
consent for the harvesting of organs.
Ottawa Citizen
?CanWest News Service 2006



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