10 Dec 2012

NEW YORK -- Looking for a meaningful gesture to mark International Human Rights Day today? The Falun Dafa Information Center encourages Americans to sign a petition to President Obama urging him to investigate and condemn organ harvesting abuses in China. Just go to www.organpetition.org.

A trio of medical doctors initiated the petition on December 2 calling upon the Obama administration to investigate and help stop forced organ harvesting from innocent Falun Gong believers illegally imprisoned 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.

The petition collected over 5,000 signatures during its first week, but more are needed to ensure the required 25,000 goal is reached in time and action is taken immediately to save the lives of people in China.

“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,” wrote Drs. Arhur Caplan, Alejandro Centurion and Jianchao Xu in an open letter they released upon initiating the petition.  

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.

For background information, the full text of the doctors' letter, and a link to the petition, visit: www.organpetition.org.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
Contacts: Gail Rachlin (+1 917-757-9780), Levi Browde (+1 845-418-4870), Erping Zhang (+1 646-533-6147), or Joel Chipkar (+1 416-731-6000)
Fax: 646-792-3916 Email: contact@faluninfo.net, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/