U.S. Medical Doctors Launch Petition to Secure White House Response to Organ Harvesting Atrocities in China

NEW YORK – A trio of medical doctors initiated a petition yesterday calling upon the Obama administration to investigate and help stop forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong believers in China. The petition is posted within the “We the People” section of the White House website, whose regulations state that the White House guarantees a response to any petition that secures 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

“We are very concerned about one of the most horrifying crimes against humanity of our time: Forced organ harvesting from living ‘prisoners’ in China. Killing for parts is a gross violation of medical ethics.” state Drs. Arhur Caplan, Alejandro Centurion and Jianchao Xu in an open letter they released upon initiating the petition. The petition is available at: http://wh.gov/5Jmn. A website with background information and the full text of the letter was created at www.organpetition.org. 

Arthur Caplan, Ph.D, is director of medical ethics with New York University’s Langone Medical Center. Dr. Centurion is a practicing physician in California, while Dr. Jianchao Xu is a kidney specialist with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Amidst efforts to end unethical medical practices around the world, all three doctors have been working over the past six years to investigate, expose, and put an end to organ transplant abuses in China. 

As the Falun Dafa Information Center has reported previously, since 2006, evidence has emerged of organ harvesting from illegally imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners (fact sheet). Unlike other countries, China has no large-scale voluntary organ donation system, so instead, military hospitals use prisoners. Experts now estimate that tens of thousands of jailed Falun Gong believers and other prisoners have been systematically examined, and then used as a living organ donor bank, killed on demand to fuel China’s lucrative transplant industry.

The U.S. State Department’s 2011 Human Rights Report cited allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong believers and other prisoners of conscience. In October, 106 members of Congress wrote to Secretary Clinton requesting the release of information the State Department is believed to have about the gruesome practice. Two Congressional hearings have covered the topic, while leading transplantation doctors and medical organizations from around the world have condemned this crime against humanity.

New Tang Dynasty Television released a short documentary in November exposing forced organ harvesting crimes in China (view online).

The Falun Dafa Information Center is calling upon all Americans to sign this petition and provide President Obama with the support he needs to publicly condemn these crimes, and launch an in-depth investigation into who is responsible and how they can be stopped.

History has repeatedly taught us that remaining silent in the face of such horror is to be complicit. Let us take a stand.