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Organ Harvesting & Trafficking (The Human Organ Trade)

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Anonymous

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Thai 'murder for kidney' trial starts

Hi All.
Suppose this has links to the popular urban myths of organs removed without the owners permission..

Cheers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1952000/1952129.stm

A Thai criminal court has begun hearing the cases of three doctors and a hospital manager accused of conspiring to murder patients for their kidneys.
It is alleged the doctors - who worked at Bangkok's private Vajiraprakarn hospital - removed the organs when the patients were in a coma, but not officially declared brain dead.

Prosecutor Charathana Phatanapanich told the court on Thursday the hospital manager falsified documents to say the victims' relatives voluntarily donated their kidneys.

All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges in what is believed to be the first case of medical murder to go to court in Thailand.

Organ donation is permitted in Thailand, with the consent of the donor's family and the recipient's - but no money is allowed to change hands.

Strange scars

The two cases allegedly occurred in February and November of 1997.

The trial was the result of a lengthy investigation after suspicious relatives found surgical scars on the bodies of their kin, who died after being in a coma for some time.

Lawyers said it could take over a year to hear testimony from about 120 witnesses in the case, which has taken prosecutors two years to put together.

If found guilty of murder, the doctors could face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, while the document forgery charges carry up to five years in jail.

The doctors' licences were revoked in 2000 by the Thai Medical Council after it found them guilty of breaching medical ethics.
 
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Organ harvesting?

Docs accused of live kidney removal

From correspondents in Moscow
April 29, 2004


THE Moscow prosecutor's office early today accused four Russian doctors who had tried to remove a live patient's kidneys for a transplant, of having "prepared a murder", Russian news agencies reported.

The 50-year-old man had been hospitalised last month for cranial traumatism, but when police arrived at the hospital they discovered that he had been taken away from the intensive care unit and that doctors were getting ready to remove his kidneys.

One of the doctors, transplant specialist Pyotr Pyatnichuk, was charged with attempted murder, a prosecutor's office official said.

His three colleagues, transplant specialist Bayrma Shagduriva and doctors Irina Lirtsman and Lyubov Pravdenko, were expected to be formally charged within five days.

Lirtsman, who heads the hospital's intensive care unit, was also charged with abuse of power.

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9419671%5E13762,00.html
 
A new twist? Organ harvesting for Terror??

Afghan children fall prey to killers who trade human organs

By Mike Collett-White in Kandahar

07 June 2004

Ismail is only 10 years old, but the horrors of the past three months will be with him to his grave. He was rescued by the Afghan authorities on Friday, after being kidnapped in March with his brother Ibrahim, 6.

Quietly, he told seeing the bodies of four boys of about his age that had been cut open. "They took us to a mountain where I saw the bodies," he said. "They had taken out the organs. They were on the ground at the bottom of this mountain, then the men took them away. They were boys of about our age. I thought I would not live long when I saw them. I was scared."

The intelligence chief for the south, Dr Abdullah Laghmani, said local forces were searching for the four bodies, having found one already in Panjwai district to the southwest of Kandahar, where he is based. "We have information they [the kidnappers] killed five children, cutting their heads off and opening their stomachs to extract their kidneys," Dr Laghmani said.

He believes the kidnappers, involved in a worrying rise in the number of disappearing children across the country, planned to sell the kidneys in Pakistan, where patients are prepared to pay large amounts of money for healthy organs. There also appear to be other motives, including extortion.

The kidnappers who seized Ismail and Ibrahim from their home in a village in the remote southwestern province of Nimruz demanded money from their grandfather, which he could not hope to pay. "During these three months I was desperate and feared that I would never see my grandsons again," said a tearful Haji Anwar, an elderly man with a white turban and matching beard. "We were planning to hold prayers for them, assuming they had died."

Ali Ahmad Jalali, the Interior Minister, said recently that hundreds of children had been taken out of the country illegally in recent years, and some had been kidnapped for their body parts.

Dr Laghmani said: "These three men who were arrested did what they did for money, but the money will end up in the hands of al-Qa'ida and Taliban."

The three kidnappers detained in the latest case had been sent to Kabul for questioning, he said. Four AK-47s and a machine-gun were found in their compound.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=529009
 
Pretty shocking (and grim) stuff:

Illegal Organ Business Booms

Translated from the Chinese edition
The Epoch Times

Aug 06, 2004


On July 17, 2004, the Scientific and Technology Museum of Taiwan held an exhibition of human anatomy. At the exhibition, all the human bodies and organs on display were provided by the Medical Association of China. Prior to the exhibition it was alleged that some of the bodies and organs were illegally obtained from executed Chinese prisoners.

The trade in human organs is now a profitable venture in China. Foreigners from Southeast Asia, Taiwan or even Canada seek kidney transplants in China where Shanghai has become the main center for organ transplants. According to reliable sources within the Shanghai Police department, some police officers are conspiring with greedy doctors to sell the organs of dead prisoners for large sums of money.

Between July 20, 1999 and July 1, 2004, at least 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death in China. These practitioners, 52 percent of whom were female, had an average age of 44 years. A recent report alleges that organs from some of these dead Falun Gong practitioners had been removed. This is a clear violation of human rights!

Dalian Human Anatomy Research

Recently, German Doctor Gunther von Hagens, held a human anatomy exhibition that was condemned by many human rights associations. It was revealed by the German media that some of the corpses in Dr. Hagens’ exhibition were those of executed Chinese prisoners. Dr. Hagens admitted that some of the bodies he exhibited had been shot in the head. Bright Mirror Weekly of Germany reported that Dr. Hagens has been trading in human corpses and organs for more than ten years. He has three sites for his business, the biggest in Dalian, located close to three Chinese labor camps. This site was formerly managed by Dr. Sui Hongjin, who hired 170 Chinese employees.

Dr. Hagens’ human anatomy trade is worldwide and an extremely profitable business, receiving many orders from research departments of universities and hospitals around the world. His old manager, Dr. Sui Hongjin, left him and established another company to compete with Dr. Hagens. Many of the specimens exhibited publicly in Beijing and Hong Kong were provided by Dr. Sui Hongjin. Dr. Sui obtains the corpses of the dead prisoners from the Chinese government in the same manner as Dr. Hagens.

Sale of Human Organs Condoned

In China, the removal of the organs of executed prisoners is a practice condoned by the government. Many Chinese policemen, judges, and doctors are all willing to discuss how to obtain organs from dead prisoners for commercial usage.

On June 27, 2001, Wang Guoqi, a doctor specializing in the burn victims unit at the Paramilitary Tianjin General Hospital in Tianjin, testified before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights of the United States House of Representatives. He said in his testimony that he was sent by the hospital to remove skin and corneas from the corpses of over 100 executed prisoners at a crematorium.

Dr. Thomas Diflo and human rights activist Wu Hongda also testified. Dr. Diflo, who is working in the NYU Medical Center, wrote in his article, published in a May issue of the New York Village Voice that six of his patients who had kidney transplants in China came to him afterwards for medical care. These patients all told him that their new kidneys came from executed prisoners.

Organ Business Boom

Reliable sources report that kidney transplant patients from places such as Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Canada often travel to China to obtain a transplant operation. The cost is about 1 million Taiwan dollars (US,000). The usual arrangements are that after they receive the notification of an available kidney, they immediately travel to China. After spending a week in the hospital, they are provided with a suitable kidney.

On December 12, 2000, The Union Evening News of Singapore carried a detailed report for patients who were considering travelling to China to obtain kidney transplants.

On June 12, 2001, the Voice of America quoted a report from the Globe Post News of Canada that a businessman in Vancouver, arranged for Canadian patients to obtain kidney transplants in Shanghai. The report also pointed out that Shanghai had already become the main location for providing kidney transplants in China.

The Chinese media has reported that, at the beginning of this year, there were many advertisements for transplant kidneys and corneas in hospitals of Shanghai and Liaoning. Some advertisements listed the blood type and age of the donor, and the phone number of the contact person. According to the report, a kidney costs 100,000 yuan (US,000) in Shanyang.

Officials Steal And Trade In Organs From Executed prisoners

On February 16, 2004, the District Court for the City of Huludao in Liaoning Province held a hearing for a lawsuit against the local police station for stealing organs from a corpse. On August 4, 2002, Qiu Pigou coal miner Fang Yanjun, accidentally lost his life in the mine. On the next day, a post mortem examination was conducted by the Nanpiao Medical Examiner.

When Fang Yanjun’s family members arrived, part of his organs were already missing. This had been done without the permission of his family members. The family of Fang Yanjun sued the Police Department of Hulutao City for illegal dissection of the corpse and stealing the organs. They sought compensation of 300,000 yuan (US,000).

On September 21, 2003, The Lanzhou Morning News posted an article, "Should The Family Members Have The Right to Know That The Organs Of Dead prisoners Are Missing?" The article reported in detail that on April 2, 2003, the District Court for the City of Dunhuang in Gansu Province stole and sold organs of three dead prisoners without permission from their family members. The District Court argued that their behaviour was totally legal. They only gave 2,000 yuan (US0) to the family members for compensation.

The Chinese Human Rights and Democratic Activities Information Center of Hong Kong disclosed on August 2, 2001, that the News Director of the Metropolitan Information News in Jiangxi Province, Yao Xiaohong, had been fired. She had reported that the District Court for Pingsiang city in Jiangxi Province had stolen the kidneys from corpses without permission. This action had incurred the wrath of the local government.

China is the country conducting most of the trade in human organs. Organs obtained from the corpses of executed prisoners, if healthy, are being sold to hospitals or patients directly. If the organs are unsuitable for transplant, they are sold to companies such as the ones owned by Dr. Hagens and Dr. Sui. They are displayed all over the world.

Organs of Dead Falun Gong Practitioners "Missing"

In June 2004, Falun Gong practitioners charged that some Falun Gong practitioners, who had been tortured to death in jails, labor camps or police stations, had their organs illegally stolen and sold for transplant usage. Inspection of the corpses of some Falun Gong practitioners, who had been tortured to death, revealed the bodies had been dissected without the authority of their family members. Some of the corpses were missing organs. A source inside the Drug Rehabilitation Center of Guangzhou City reported that doctors there instructed the people inflicting torture, "do not hit the waist, the kidney is useful."

Ren Pengwu, 33, was distributing Falun Gong literature February 16, 2001. He was arrested by the Hulan County police and detained in the Hulan County Second Detention Center. Before dawn, Feb. 21, only five days after his detention, he was dead after being tortured. Without obtaining the family's permission, and under the guise of a "post mortem examination," the Hulan County authorities completely removed all of Ren Pengwu's organs, from his pharynx and larynx to his penis, then hastily cremated his body.

Zuo Zhigang, 33, and worked at a computer store in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. On May 30, 2001, police from the Public Security Bureau of Shijiazhuang City took him from his work place to the Qiaoxi District Police Station in Shijiazhuang. The police interrogated Zuo Zhigang, using various torture methods, and he was beaten to death the same day. His mutilated corpse revealed that one of his ears was dark purple and there were two big square-shaped holes on the back of his torso, revealing removal of organs. There was a mark on his neck showing that a cord had been pulled tightly around it.

Hao Runjuan of Guangzhou City was the very healthy mother of a two-year-old boy before she was arrested. After being continuously tortured for 22 days by police in the Baiyun Detention Center, she died. Upon her death, the police authorities conducted a post mortem examination without her family member’s knowledge, even though the law requires the signature of a family member to approve an autopsy. When the family was told to identify the body, it was completely unrecognizable, but there were still fresh bloodstains on it. Because the body was so disfigured, none of her family members believed it was Hao Runjuan, even after viewing the body twice. The family had to take the two-year-old son for a DNA blood test to confirm the body was truly his mother's.

Yang Ruiyu of Fuzhou City was an employee at the Real Estate Bureau of Taijiang District. On July 19, 2001, Yang was taken away from her work. Only three days later, Yang died as a result of the abuse. After her death, the Fuzhou police warned Yang's family not to discuss the event with anyone. Yang's colleagues were not allowed to see her body or say goodbye, and no funeral was permitted. When the body was sent to be cremated, it was guarded by police cars, and cremated immediately upon arrival. Yang's husband and daughter were not allowed to view the body. They suspect her organs were harvested from her body.

Sun Ruijian, 29, left home on November 7, 2000, to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong in Beijing. He was arrested by Beijing police. On December 1, his family was told that he had died. They claimed that two Fujian police were sent to bring him back from Beijing and that he died after jumping out of the train at 4:00 p.m. on November 29, somewhere between the cities of Shunchang and Xiayang.

A man who was detained in the Drug Rehabilitation Center of Guangzhou City said that he saw some jailed drug addicts beating a Falun Gong practitioner while a doctor of the center was standing nearby. The doctor said, "Don’t hit the waist, the kidney is useful." He heard doctors at the center tell the detained drug addicts that if they wanted to assault Falun Gong practitioners, they should not hit the waist or the eyes.

This man also saw several young male Falun Gong practitioners from northern China who did not return after being dragged from a detention room. Those Falun Gong practitioners had no families and relatives in Guangzhou and even though they went missing, nobody would ask after them. His observation in the Guangzhou City Drug Rehabilitation Center is that the Falun Gong practitioners from outside areas were often beaten by jailed drug addicts at the request of the center doctors. They also asked the drug addicts to avoid injuring internal organs.

Minghui.net, a website that reports Falun Gong news and information, urgently appeals to the international community to take action about the missing organ incidents, especially those of the Falun Gong practitioners. Also, Minghui.net asked the friends and relatives of the dead Falun Gong practitioners to collect and maintain any and all the evidence for these crimes, so that we may file lawsuit against all the criminal behavior in the future.

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-8-6/22721.html
 
Organ trafficking and transplantation pose new challenges
07 Sep 2004





The international trade in human organs is on the increase fuelled by growing demand as well as unscrupulous traffickers. The rising trend has prompted a serious reappraisal of current legislation, while WHO has called for more protection for the most vulnerable people who might be tempted to sell a kidney for as little as US$ 1000.

Increasing demand for donated organs, uncontrolled trafficking and the challenges of transplantation between closely-related species have prompted a serious re-evaluation of international guidelines and given new impetus to the role of WHO in gathering epidemiological data and setting basic normative standards.

There are no reliable data on organ trafficking — or indeed transplantation activity in general — but it is widely believed to be on the increase, with brokers reportedly charging between US$ 100 000 and US$ 200 000 to organize a transplant for wealthy patients. Donors — frequently impoverished and ill-educated — may receive as little as US$ 1000 for a kidney although the going price is more likely to be about US$ 5000.

A resolution adopted at this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) voiced “concern at the growing insufficiency of available human material for transplantation to meet patient needs,” and urged Member States to “extend the use of living kidney donations when possible, in addition to donations from deceased donors.”

It also urged governments “to take measures to protect the poorest and most vulnerable groups from ‘transplant tourism’ and the sale of tissues and organs, including attention to the wider problem of international trafficking in human tissues and organs.”

Earlier this year, police broke up an international ring which arranged for Israelis to receive kidneys from poor Brazilians at a clinic in the South African port city of Durban. But such highprofile successes merely scratch at the surface.

Countries such as Brazil, India and Moldova — well-known sources of donors — have all banned buying and selling of organs. But this has come at the risk of driving the trade underground.

Behind the growth in trafficking lies the increasing demand for transplant organs.

In Europe alone, there are currently 120 000 patients on dialysis treatment and about 40 000 people waiting for a kidney, according to a report last year by the European Parliamentary Assembly.

It warned that the waiting list for a transplant, currently about three years, would increase to 10 years by 2010, and with it the death rate from the shortage of organs.

In Asia, South America and Africa, there is widespread resistance — for cultural and personal reasons as well as due to the high cost — to using cadaveric organs, or those from dead bodies.

The majority of transplanted organs come from live, often unrelated, donors. Even in the United States, the number of renal or kidney transplants from live donors exceeded those from deceased donors for the first time in 2001.

Yet the Guiding Principles on human organ transplantation, adopted by the WHA in 1991, state that organs should “be removed preferably from the bodies of deceased persons,” and that live donors should in general be genetically related to the recipient.

They also prohibit “giving and receiving money, as well as any other commercial dealing”.

This year’s WHA resolution therefore asked WHO Director-General Dr LEE Jong-wook to consider updating the guiding principles in the light of current practices.

“There is a real risk that standards devised in the 1990s with the emphasis on prohibition will be undermined and we have to react to this,” said Dr Nikola Biller-Andorno, ethicist at WHO’s Department of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights and Health Law. “What is needed is a critical and thorough analysis of the different proposals that have been made particularly with regard to expanding the use of living donors, by providing incentives and/or removing disincentives.” Dr Biller-Andorno said.

Dr Luc Noel, coordinator of the newly created Clinical Procedures team in WHO’s Department of Essential Health Technologies, said part of the review process included examination of how to minimize health risks to living donors after the donation.

“Removing disincentives is a must. Adding incentives is where things get difficult,” Noel said.

For instance, should a donor in a country with no health insurance be offered free coverage in case he or she gets a complication after the operation? And would this qualify as an incentive or removing a disincentive?

A WHO consultation on organ and tissue transplantation in Madrid last October, grouping 37 clinicians, social scientists, ethicists and government officials from 23 countries, reached no consensus on how and where to draw the line between removing disincentives and providing incentives.

The Madrid consultation unanimously agreed that there should be a WHO expert advisory panel both for allogeneic transplantation, involving organs from an organism of the same species, and xenogeneic transplantation, involving those from another species, and for global safety and quality principles for the regulation of organs and tissues.

Noel said there was a need for more epidemiological data and for more global transparency — especially with regard to the long-term health, psychological and socio-economic consequences for both living donors and recipients.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=13008

:eek!!!!:
 
Man sells wife's kidney

A Pakistani man has been accused of selling one of his wife's kidneys without her knowledge.

Muhammad Ashfaq, from Lahore, is then reported to have divorced Zohra Bibi.

The Daily Times says Ashfaq convinced his wife to undergo surgery so they could have children. However Ashfaq reportedly ordered that one of her kidneys be removed.

He sold it for the equivalent of £1,900.

According to the Daily Times Ashfaq divorced his wife after years of marriage.

Local police are expected to press charges against him.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1118615.html?menu=news.quirkies
 
Call to allow body organ selling

Two US doctors have suggested the sale of organs such as kidneys should be legalised to meet the rising demand. They said bids to increase the donor pool were failing, and a black market in organ sales was booming.

Writing in Kidney International the pair said, while it remained a taboo, legalisation should be considered. But experts in the UK - where selling organs is illegal - said such a move was unnecessary and would exploit the poorest sections of society.


It is a tragedy that the critical shortage of organs donated for transplant means this question arises at all
UK Transplant spokesman

About 400 people a year die in the UK because they are left waiting for a donor, despite the fact that 13m people are signed up to the register.

UK Transplant, the NHS body responsible for the register, said in many cases organs were prevented from being donated because the families were unaware of the donor's intentions.

A spokesman said efforts were being made in the UK to encourage people to join the register and talk about it with their families.

And while refusing to take a position on selling organs, he said: "It is a tragedy that the critical shortage of organs donated for transplant means this question arises at all."

Eli Friedman, a kidney specialist, at the State University of New York, and Amy Friedman, a transplant specialist, of Yale University, said the case for legalising kidney purchases hinged on the fact that individuals were entitled to control their own body parts.

'Exploitative'

They said: "Strategies to expand the donor pool - public relations campaigns - have been mainly unsuccessful.

"Although illegal in most nations, and viewed as unethical by professional medical organisations, the voluntary sale of purchased donor kidneys now accounts for thousands of black market transplants."

The doctors suggested a figure of about £23,000 for a kidney, with an agency being set up to regulate the market.

But Dr Michael Wilks, chairman of the British Medical Association's ethics committee, said there was universal opinion against selling organs.

"It is exploitative, particularly for the third world, if you had an unfettered global market, and what is more it is not necessary.

"If we had more investment in transplantation services and intensive care and changed the law so we had presumed consent we could meet need."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/h ... 719374.stm

Published: 2006/02/16 11:59:48 GMT

© BBC MMVI
 
Concentration Camp for Falun Gong Disclosed; Prisoners Killedfor Organ Harvesting

Nobody has yet come out, Chinese Government Insider Reveals.

Since the Nuremberg Trials came to a close in 1946, condemning theNazi officials responsible for theHolocaust, it has been the common hope of the people in the world that concentration camps like Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau, would never again emerge in the history of mankind. The horrifying fact is that a similar facility is at this very moment in operation in China.

The Irish Falun Gong Information Centre received shocking, detailed information on Wednesday from a Chinese Communist Party insider documenting a concentration camp set up in Shenyang city, Liaoning province, expressly for Falun Gong practitioners. The news comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of States 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released Wednesday; the report documents continued, systematic abuses of the Falun Gong in China. (full report)

Information about the camp was relayed via audio recording from a former intelligence agent of the Chinese government. It is the first time news of the secret camps existence was disclosed to outsiders. The camp is said to hold over 6,000 Falun Gong adherents at any given time, and nobody has yet come out from it alive. According to the source, it contains a crematorium, and an unusually large number of doctors work there reflecting the camps practice of killingprisoners for their organs, which are then sold for profit.

The source tried to convey the horror of what is happening in the concentration camp: Why was a crematorium built, and why are so many doctors housed there? & The answer is something unimaginable. You must be clear that a cremator for bodies is different than a burner used for sanitation purposes.

Located in the Sujiatun district of Shenyang city, the camp, dubbed the Sujiatun Concentration Camp, is surrounded by walls three meters high topped with electrified barbed wire. It is heavily fortified and said to be highly secret; locals know close to nothing about it. Those held inside are Falun Gong adherents from China's three northeastern provinces as well as central China; many are said to have been transferred there from various labor camps. CCP authorities involved with the camp have learned many things from North Korea, according to the source.

This is deeply, terribly disturbing, and confirms our worst fears: that CCP authorities remain intent on eradicating Falun Gong, and in their desperation will go to any lengths,stated EFGIC spokesperson Mr. Gerald O'Connor. We need to be clear that the persecution has not gone away it has merely become darker and more hidden.

The Chinese government source spoke at length about the unlawful harvesting of organs in the Sujiatun facility. If Falun Dafa practitioners are sent to Sujiatun, he said, they have no chance of coming out & The CCP won't let a prisoner consume food forever. So what are they up to, then? & the Falun Dafa practitioners are killedfor their organs, which are sent off to various medical facilities. Organ sales is now a highly profitable business in China.

They can't find enough bodies through executions,and no bodies are more readily available for this business than those of the [Falun Dafa] practitioners,he stated.

Warning signs have surfaced in recent months.

Last June CCP authorities reportedly held a crisis meeting in which China's deputy minister of Public Security, Liu Jing, was assigned the job of stamping out Falun Gong before the Olympic Games in 2008,according to the Paris-based Intelligence Online. Several reports have stated that authorities wish to use the Olympics as a pretext to deepen their assault on the Falun Gong.

This past January, Chinese officials similarly announced a new campaign that would supposedly sabotage activities of cult organizations as part of a complex struggle against enemies,according to a Reuters report. Past campaigns to strike hard have resulted in upwards of 10,000-plus executions in a single year, say human rights groups.

Word of concentration camps for Falun Gong practitioners has circulated for several years. An October 1, 2000, report by Agence France Presse told of two concentration camps having been recently built, both specifically for Falun Gong detainees. The camps were said to have been built in northwest and northeast China, and been capable of each holding up to 50,000 persons.

An October 6, 2000, report on Minghui.net stated that a concentration camp, expressly for the Falun Gong, had been built in the remote northwestern province of Xinjiang. Chinese sources report seeing Falun Gong adherents shipped off on trains to the Xinjiang camp. Little to no information on the secretive camp has emerged. No one to date is known to have come back from the camp.

Stated Mr. O'Connor, International media and governments around the world must pay attention to this and take active measures to investigate the concentration camp and put a stop to this barbarity and madness. We are calling for all possible support from international organizations. There must be accountability in China. If this is the price people are paying for our silence, it is chillingly tragi

Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about), is a practice of the Buddha School, consisting of meditation and exercises, with teachings that emphasise living by three principles: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Originating in China, Falun Gong is now practised in over 70 countries countries. With Chinese government estimates of 100 million China practising Falun Gong in China, in July 1999 the Chinese Communist Party-state launched a nationwide, violent campaign to eradicate the practice. The Irish Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 2,840 deaths and over 44,000 cases of torture (Reports / Sources). Millions have been detained or sent to forced labour camps.

FOR MORE DETAILS, PLEASE CONTACT THE IRISH FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE - Gerald O'Connor 0872789969 Email: [email protected].




http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74819
 
Journalist Quits China to Expose Concentration Camp Horrors

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/6-3-10/39111.html

Worse Than Any Nightmare—Journalist Quits China to Expose Concentration Camp Horrors and Bird Flu Coverup

Over 6,000 Falun Gong Practitioners Detained in Secret Concentration Camp in China; 425 Bird Flu Patients in Two Facilities

Epoch Times Staff Mar 10, 2006


A long-time reporter who worked for a Japanese television news agency and specialized in news on China told The Epoch Times that some little-known and very frightening things are happening in China today. To protect his identity, The Epoch Times will refer to him as Mr. R.

CCP is Hiding Bird Flu from the World

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has concealed the spread of the H5N1 bird flu epidemic within China from the rest of the world, according to Mr. R. Currently, 425 bird flu patients are detained at the Heping District Contagious Disease Hospital and the Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Huanggu District, Shenyang City. These patients are being used for medical experiments. Liaoning Province has decided to not report these patients to the central government and use all of them as subjects for medical experiments. These people have no chance of survival.

Over 6,000 Falun Gong Practitioners are Secretly Detained at Sujiatun Concentration Camp

In Sujiatun District, Shenyang City, the CCP has established a secret concentration camp, where over 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners are detained, said Mr. R. The concentration camp has a crematorium to dispose of bodies. There are also many doctors on site. No detainees have managed to leave the concentration camp alive. Before cremation, the internal organs are all removed from the bodies and sold. Now there are only a few Falun Gong practitioners at the Masanjia Labor Camp and Dabei Second Prison. Most of them have been moved to Sujiatun. Other practitioners from northeastern China and central China are also being transferred there.

"I Am Not Afraid of Death"

"I have escaped to the United States and have just told you about the situation of the bird flu and the Falun Gong practitioners in Sujiatun. Many people are shocked that I exposed the situation. To be honest, I am not afraid of death," said Mr. R, apparently reflecting on measures that the CCP may take against him after his disclosures.

The following was compiled from an audio record of an interview with Mr. R.

Using Limited Freedom of Speech to Make A Difference for the People of China

I worked in a Japanese television news agency, in charge of news about China. We sold our news programs to various commercial television stations.

Since 1999, the Chinese Embassy in Japan established a news communications company. They also founded a Chinese-language TV station. I was hired by the Education Department of the Chinese Embassy responsible for the production and examination of news reports.

In the last few years, economic reform was speeding up in China and many problems began to emerge. It was as though Pandora's Box had opened. Hope, crime, and darkness; everything was released.

Since taking office, Premier Wen Jiabao has stressed the issue of land acquisition and compensation to farmers for taking their land. However, the local officials did not implement the policies at all. In many areas of China, local gang members were hired by the local governments to attack the farmers who did not want to give up their land. In some areas, the conflicts were small. However, in Guangzhou and Hebei, big conflicts broke out. It started out with knives and shovels, and developed into paramilitary police shooting with guns. As a reporter living overseas [but working in China], I was very angry about the issues. I thought I needed to use the limited freedom of speech I had to make a difference for the people of China. However, that has caused me a lot of trouble, especially since I exposed an incident involving a Japanese consulate official.

Report on Japanese Diplomat's Suicide Caused a Big Stir

What was the incident about? In May 2004, I reported on a Japanese consulate official's suicide. The diplomat was from the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai. However, both the Chinese and Japanese governments were quiet about it. The incident was a big taboo for both governments.

The consulate official was just a secretary, not a consul. He liked women, and his weakness was easily discovered by the National Security Agency. I gathered a lot of information on him through interviews with his lover's colleagues, as well as those who worked in the hotel and security guards at the parking lots of the popular clubs.

After the incident was exposed, and before the Chinese Embassy realized what was going on, the Tokyo Public Security Commission and police bureau visited me and took away my research on this matter. Soon thereafter, in December 2005, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Aso gave speeches to address the incident. Making use of its connections with The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA), the Chinese Embassy in Japan eventually found out who had reported on this incident. This contributed to my public affairs passport being confiscated [by the Chinese authorities].

Photo Footage from Shanwei

[Prior to that,] On December 6, when the Shanwei shooting in Guangdong Province just happened, we were the first there to cover the incident. At the news meeting, we were detained, guns were pointed at us, and we were forced to lie on the ground. When reporting in China, I liked the idea of having a Japanese photographer taking photos [in addition to video footage]. I thought, naively, that a foreign [of non-Chinese ethnicity] photographer would have less trouble, that even though they may detain me, they may not detain a foreign photographer.

Also, in China, we are not allowed to openly take photos. I was also amazed by the Japanese's photographers' techniques of secretly taking photos. At that time, the Japanese photographer told me, "We can hide the memory card in our Nike sneakers. It is a specially-made one; you can flip the shoe-pad up and put the card in it. They won't find it."

Japanese are good at these types of things. The hidden shoe compartment was originally designed for hiding money. At that time, even though our video camera and many small things were confiscated, we were able to retain the memory card with the photos. That is why for the Shanwei shooting, we were the only ones that were able to take and keep photos of the event.

Arrested with the Excuse of "Revealing State Secrets"

I was detained by the National Security Agency of Liaoning Province on January 28, 2006. There were two crimes they accused me of: one was "revealing state secrets," and the other was "subversion of state power." I was arrested, but since I have many connections in Sengyang, the capital of Liaoning Province, I was released on medical parole [a pretext for getting out of prison] on February 8.

On February 9, I managed to board on a flight for Japan. Life was still troublesome after I arrived in Japan because both my boss and the Chinese Embassy were giving me problems. I decided to go to the United States.

VCD of Police Gang-Raping a Falun Gong Practitioner
There was a video tape in the reference room of the Shenyang Public Security Bureau. It documented the beating of Falun Gong practitioners and the use of torture instruments. There were also scenes of the rape of a female Falun Gong practitioner. This video tape came from brainwashing classes in Huanggu District of Shenyang City. When they [the authorities] were doing the interrogation, they thought they have turned off the camera, but it had not been turned off. While they interrogated the Falun Gong practitioner, they gang raped her. The scenes were wretched. I just don't know how this videotape was made into VCD's and passed along.

At first, the VCD's were found at some market stalls and were for sale. Later, the Shenyang Public Security Bureau found them and started investigating it. They caught the person who made the VCD but didn't punish the person. They only confiscated the original tape. But the VCDs are still available in Shenyang. I viewed the VCD myself.

On the VCD, there was no sound. It took place in a police station. You can see the ones who were interrogating the Falun Gong practitioner, and you can see what they were doing. It was a vivid scene of an interrogation. Upon seeing it, you will know that it's not a fake. It's not possible to fake such things. It was all too real. [Upon seeing it] you will know it is an interrogation in a police station. There were police holding electric batons, and there were those who took notes. If someone takes this VCD to overseas countries, it will become a piece of indisputable evidence. The scenes were inhuman and terrible. The Chinese Communist regime has hidden many things. Many working units persecute Falun Gong. The police have done so many bad things. Some practitioners were beaten to death, but their family members weren't even allowed to take care of their dead. The bodies were directly sent to a crematorium. After cremation, the family members were not even allowed to collect the ashes. What kind of social status is there for Falun Gong in China? As long as you practice Falun Gong, all people in society will look down upon you. And if you disappear, you will disappear forever. Nobody can find you and nobody is allowed to ask.

In the beginning, if your family gave police money, they would release you. Later, this was not allowed anymore. If you truly practice Falun Gong and if you don't yield, the persecution you will receive is beyond imagination. It is similar to the situation of the martyr Zhang Zhixin. I wanted to write an article about her but I just could not get the evidence. In Shenyang, I once wanted to write something about the Great Cultural Revolution, and I had just no way to get the evidence I needed. Right now, for Falun Gong, it is the same.

I Went to Hospitals To Interview Some Nurses

I went to a few hospitals to interview some nurses, and was told that the Falun Gong practitioners incarcerated in hospital were in a wretched condition. The persecution of Falun Gong is not any less cruel than what occurred during the Cultural Revolution.

I wanted to learn and understand more about Falun Gong. The Falun Gong practitioners in Japan look simple and sincere and are not like other Chinese people living in Japan. Generally Chinese people living in Japan are always looking for the good life. Two to three thousand US$ per month seems to be considered a fairly good income. In U.S and in Japan everyone aspires to a high income, yet only Falun Gong practitioners are dressed very simply and live a pure, monastic sort of life.

I have found myself feeling very close to Falun Gong practitioners in conversation and by listening to them I found something that has been lost for a long time in the souls of the Chinese people. Because there are many cult groups in Japan, such as Aum Shinriykyo, I wanted to understand the teachings of Falun Gong: Why they practise; and what kind of level they want to achieve.

After talking to Falun Gong practitioners and reading Mr. Li Hongzhi's books, I could not find anything that relates to the end of the world or anything that teaches people to kill or destroy, so I do not understand why the Chinese communist regime calls it a cult and persecutes them. Everything I heard them say is kind and honest, and I don't believe that anyone would have a problem in accepting them at face value.

I was very moved by the Falun Gong practitioner's banners "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance are Good." I also wanted to know the reason why the communist regime is persecuting Falun Gong. I really wanted to understand why, and the deeper I understood, the more I realized that Falun Gong practitioners are enduring a horrendous suffering through this inhumane persecution happening today in China.

Recently in Hong Kong, Falun Gong practitioners were beaten when thugs broke into the Epoch Times Office and damaged the Epoch Times printing factory. I want to remind Falun Gong practitioners and other organizations in Japan, to please be careful.

Two Hospitals in Shenyang City Locked Up 425 Bird Flu-infected Patients

I also want to talk about the bird flu problem in China. I believe that most people are aware of bird flu [in China], but do you believe there is no bird flu outbreak in China at present?

On Feb 27, China's State Forest Administration Wild Life Plant Conservation Office Chief Zhuo Rongsheng said, "Now, I can be sure there is no bird flu [in humans] outbreak in China." Yet, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has never stopped suspecting that there is a bird flu outbreak [in humans] in China. The WHO could not find any evidence to support their suspicions, and they remain unsure whether the bird flu [in humans] is still only contained in Guangzhou.

Two days ago, hospital medical staff accidentally leaked information that one person had died of bird flu in Guangzhou. It was then the outside world began to pay attention to the region of Guangzhou. Now the world is closely watching bird flu issue because of its highly infectious nature. However, in China's northeast city Shenyang there is an area that no ones knows or thinks about [with respect to this issue]. Recently I kept a close watch on that. The Wild Life Plant Conservation Office has been saying that there were 150 state level wild life observation stations and 402 provincial level observation stations, but I found that they either do not exist, or they have not been activated.

The Communist regime has stated to the world that there is no bird flu problem in China and they also claim to have many observation stations in China, but the truth of the matter is that there is no monitoring of bird flu in China.

In the past when talking about AIDS, Chinese people think of Hebei Province. Now, when talking about bird flu, people think of Guangzhou. Because there are many poultry farms in Guangzhou's suburb, the infectious problem is more serious than in other places. Actually, the bird flu is not just spread from birds, it can be passed around wild animals like civet cats. I have found and can prove that now there are large number of cases of bird flu infection in Zhalong, Helongjiang province and Xianghai, Jilin Province.

I Can Name Two Institutions Housing a Large Number Human Bird Flu Infection Cases

The Chinese Communist regime has said there were only 14 lab-verified human bird flu infection cases and eight deaths, not including the three recent cases. I can give the names of two institutions [involved in a coverup], Shenyang City Contagious Disease Hospital in Heping District, Shenyang and the Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Huanggu District, Shenyang. Most of the bird flu-infected patients are locked in these two hospitals, and shockingly there are 425 patients who have contracted bird flu.

I got this information from a Shenyang Municipal Public Health Bureau internal report. The Bureau reported this directly to the Liaoning Provincial Committee, bypassing the Shenyang Municipal Committee even though the Municipal Committee is located on the other side of the street from the Provincial Committee.

So what is the Provincial Committee's policy in handling this issue? It is not to report to upper level authorities any outbreaks of bird flu, and all bird flu patients in the hospital are being treated as experimental medical subjects.

Relatives Cannot Help Bird Flu Infection Patients, as They Will Never Be Released

Bird flu patients are just like SARS patients, their relatives cannot help them because they are nearly dead, and they will never be released out of the hospitals [where they are held]. Some of the patients are not Shenyang residents, and nobody knows that they are inside the hospital. As soon as they entered the hospital they become experimental medical subjects—this will never be made public.

Secret Concentration Camp in Sujiatun, Shenyang

I have worked as journalist in China for some time now, and have been exposing the situation of Falun Gong. Most of the people know that there is a Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, that there is a Dabei Second Prison near the Masanjia Labor Camp, and that there is a brainwashing center located in the Huanggu District Police Department. You may not know that there is another facility especially used to torture Falun Dafa practitioners in the Sujiatun District. Up until now, nobody has dared to do an interview to report this place.

Most prisons and labor camps have detainees going in and out, and eventually information will be brought out. But this Sujiatun Concentration Camp has not had anyone come out yet; therefore, the people outside find it very difficult to know what is happening inside. During my other interviews in Shenyang, I learned that there are very few Falun Dafa practitioners still detained in the Masanjia Labor Camp or in Dabei Prison, because they have been sent to this concentration camp in Sujiatun.

The Sujiatun Concentration Camp has steel gates that remain closed all the time. There is a three-meter high brick wall that has electric wire netting on top. No one can see in from outside, and people living nearby have said that this place is always tightly sealed. This is a secret prison, so you will see neither people (uniformed or not) nor vehicles coming in or out for two or three days at a time.

In China, actually, there is no constitutional law that can legally sentence Falun Gong practitioners, so they are locked inside this facility.

Practitioners from the Three Northeastern Provinces Are Shifting to Sujiatun

According to an insider, all people locked inside the Sujiatun facility are Falun Gong practitioners, and currently, there are more than six thousand Falun Dafa practitioners detained here, including practitioners from the three northeastern provinces and central China.

Maybe you have heard about the torture methods used at the Masanjia Labor Camp—the most common torture is shocking with electrical batons. The torture techniques from Masanjia have been passed to all levels of the CCP Political and Judiciary Committees.

If Falun Gong practitioners are sent to Sujiatun, I believe that they will never come out. What is the Chinese communist regime doing to them behind those walls? The Chinese regime would never feed and house them indefinitely. What many people probably do not know is that the CCP Political and Judiciary Committee system in the Shenyang City Area and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture have learned many things from the Concentration Camps in North Korea.

Prisoners' Organs Were Removed and Doctors Sell Them

I am sorry that I have to use such a direct way to speak such a fact, Falun Gong practitioners are killed for their organs, which are then sent to medical facilities. Currently, the organ business is a very profitable one in China.

Many patients that have died on operating tables have had their organs taken away. No one investigates it. Even doctors are involved in this trade. They cannot find enough bodies through executions, and no one is more readily available than practitioners to do this business.

Why Was a Crematorium Built and Why Are So Many Doctors Housed There?

Someone told me all of the people who built the Sujiatun Camp were long term prisoners who did not know what they were building, and for what purpose. Why was a crematorium built and why are so many doctors housed there? The CCP is not kind enough to treat prisoners so well. The answer is something beyond your imagination. You must be clear that a body cremator is different than a burner used for sanitizing. Each prison is normally equipped with a burner. But if someone dies, that is no small matter, and the body must be sent to the crematorium in the city. Why is there a crematorium inside the Sujiatun Secret Camp? Why do they need to burn bodies? Why do they need so many doctors? Now you know why.

About the reliability of this information—I have many information sources, and I am very careful about each source. I obtained this information from public health systems and hospitals, which are sources that are highly important to me.

We buy information from informants, as we have many informants. For example, in Shenyang city, I have many informers. No matter whether they have news or not, every month I pay them a good salary.

What Is Happening in China Today Is Worse than Any Nightmare

For example, on December 6, 2005, in Dongzhou village, Shanwei, Guangzhou province many people were shot and killed. It was not a sudden riot; it was an organized, planned massacre. We were the first batch of journalists who got there to do interviews. Although we had a fair idea what had happened, nothing could prepare us for the reality of the situation.

We went there to report under the name of a Japanese TV station. Many photos on the Japanese version of The Epoch Times are from us. In other words, we have informers all around China, and our informers arrange many other informers. We pay them every month and the cost is very high. In Japan, people respect good work and it is important that the photos I shot, and the news I report must be true. For the pictures at the Shanwei massacre, I paid a huge price.

Now that I am in the U.S., I can talk about the bird flu outbreak [in China] and about the Falun Gong practitioners in Sujiatun Concentration Camp. Everyone will be shocked when they hear this news. Today, every word in this conversation [interview] is true.

I have already put my life at risk to get this important news out to the world. I believe this is an issue of whether or not I am a responsible journalist and human being. I am unveiling this information through The Epoch Times . This is my faith [reporting important news truthfully], the faith of my profession, and it is this faith that drives me out to expose these atrocities.

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/6-3-10/39111.html
 
WOIPFG: An Investigation Report on the DeathCamp in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province (Part I)

(Clearwisdom.net)

An investigation report on the death-camp in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province: Regarding its systematic practice of removing organs from living Falun Gong practitioners

After it was revealed that the deathcamp in Sujiatun has been removing organs from living Falun Gong practitioners before throwing their bodies into an on-site crematorium, World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) immediately began an urgent investigation. Because this investigation is still in progress, the results will be published separately. This is the first of many investigations to come.

According to our initial investigation, there truly exists a large "organ market" in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China. It is a systematic procedural practice, which includes building the death camp, detaining the "suppliers" (living Falun Gong practitioners), matching Falun Gong practitioners' organs with people who need them, surgically removing the organs, eliminating the victims' bodies and setting up the hospitals that use these stolen organs. The hospitals may be located outside of Sujiatun. International human rights organization have reported an independent system of harvesting deathrow inmates' organs, and even cases of the prospect of organ harvesting playing a role in the determination of capital punishment. Without any legal procedures, Falun Gong practitioners are taken to the Sujiatun death camp without anyone's knowledge. They are in complete isolation. Their bodies are cremated after their organs are harvested.

The operation of the Sujiatun death camp started as early as 2001, reaching its peak in 2002. Near a hospital in Sujiatun, the death camp facility is underground because it was built upon the existing infrastructure of an aerial defense facility. It has at least one exit located at the back of the hospital. From above the ground, one cannot identify anything unusual about the death camp. It is isolated and guarded with a high-level of security. It has its own supply system, including underground stores.

A large number of Falun Gong practitioners have been secretly abducted to and imprisoned in the death camp. According to a witness, it is "too horrible to watch." Because these are not regular death row inmates with predetermined execution times, the timing of the organ harvesting is determined by when they are needed by the hospital. The organ harvesting operation is conducted on living Falun Gong practitioners. Because the process is extremelybrutal, a majority of the medical professionals involved in the organ harvesting have suffered severe psychological trauma. Some common symptoms they share include insomnia and nightmares. Some people have resorted toprostitutes to help relieve the psychological pressure. Certain individuals have even committed suicide because of the extreme psychological pressure.

Providing organs from living human beings also involve the organ recipients, the military and local hospitals carrying out the organ transplants, and other supporting functions. Although the Chinese Communist authorities and staff members involved keep it a top secret, a lot of people have learned some information about the death camp. Many high-level Chinese Communist government officials in Liaoning Province and Shenyang City, especially those at management levels in the health bureaus, know about and have collaborated in this operation. The establishment and operation of the death camp has been masterminded at top levels of the Chinese Communist Party.

Because the investigation is still ongoing, we will not disclose our reference materials in order to protect the information sources and the channels of obtaining information.

World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG)



Related Link: http://www.woipfg.org
 
China bans transplant organ sales
China has said it will ban the sale of human organs from July in an attempt to clean up its transplant industry.
New regulations published by the health ministry require donors to give written permission and say transplants should be done only in specialist hospitals.

The move follows the deaths of several foreigners who travelled to China for transplants.

Correspondents say the measures fail to address a severe organ shortage which has spawned a lucrative black market.

It is estimated at least two million people in China need transplants each year but only up to 20,000 can be conducted because of the lack of organs, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Voluntary donations fall far below the level of demand because of cultural biases against organ removal before burial.


It is a complete fabrication... to say that China forcibly takes organs from the people given the death penalty for the purpose of transplanting them
Qin Gang
Foreign Ministry spokesman

Human rights groups allege that many organs come from executed prisoners, including from those who may not have given their permission.

China's foreign ministry admitted on Tuesday that organs from prisoners were used - but said it was only in "a very few cases" and with the express permission of the convict, the Associated Press news agency reported.

"It is a complete fabrication, a lie or slander to say that China forcibly takes organs from the people given the death penalty for the purpose of transplanting them," said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Critics have accused China's transplant business of being driven by profit rather than medical concerns.

Japan said earlier this year that it would investigate the cases of at least eight Japanese patients who fell ill or died after receiving organ transplants in China.

China's health ministry said the temporary ban on the sale and purchase of organs was being brought in to protect patients' health.

Under the new regulations, hospitals can have their licence to carry out transplants revoked if patients do not survive a certain number of years after the operation.

Transplant cases must also be discussed by an ethics committee and the legitimacy of the organ confirmed before the procedure can take place.






Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/w ... 853188.stm

Published: 2006/03/28 12:46:37 GMT

© BBC MMVI
 
This hasn't been any of the mainstream media here in Georgia... kinda interesting that it wouldn't be yet.
 
I don't quite get the tone - i wonder if the article quoted above is Japanese serious broadsheet or Japanese sensationalist tabloid?
 
Doctors in China Working Overtime on Organ Transplants

Doctors in China Working Overtime on Organ Transplants

Audio Recordings of Phone Interviews with Medical Doctors in China: A Surge of Human Organs from Living Donors by May 1 and Doctors Work Overtime for Organ Transplant Operations

By Tang Mei

Sound of Hope Radio Station

Apr 14, 2006


Clearwisdom.net issued an urgent announcement on April 6, 2006 in which it says, "Falun Gong practitioners in underground concentration camps, including Sujiatun Camp, have been secretly relocated and are subject to slaughter at any time. Meanwhile some hospitals in China have suddenly increased the number of transplant operations. Apparently a massacre with the purpose of exterminating all witnesses of such extermination camps is taking place right now in China."

Reporters from Sound of Hope Radio made phone calls to major hospitals in China with a human organ transplant department in order to assess the current situation. Most of the medical doctors that answered the phone gave the same guarantee --- there will be an unusually large number of organ donors before May 1. After that date, the chance for a donor will become much smaller.

I made phone calls to organ transplant centers in Hubei Province, Shanghai, Liaoning Province, Beijing, Shanxi Province and many other regions and got about the same answer from medical doctors (MD) --- grasp the opportunity right now.

Doctor A: April. We should have a lot of organs before the end of April. We are getting a larger and larger supply of organs, but you have to grasp the opportunity. Do you know what I mean? After this period of time, the supply will become very slim. After the end of April, there will be a period we will have nothing. We just won't have any supply of organs. If you don't have an organ transplant now while there is a supply, you are leading yourself to a dead end when the supply disappears.

Doctor B: You will have to get it done by May 1. This week and next week. After May 1, we will have very few organs.

Doctor C: If you want to come have an organ transplant, you must try to come before May.

Doctor D: All of our donors are in their 20's and 30's. They are very healthy. We guarantee livers and kidneys from living human beings. We can provide a whole liver. For some blood type, we can find matching donors right away.

Doctor E: Normally they are in their 20's and 30's. I can guarantee they are very healthy and the organs are fresh.

Reporter: Can I get a whole liver?

Doctor E: A whole liver. A whole liver.

Reporter: I heard some of the donors are young and healthy people in their 20's and 30's.

Doctor F: Yes. That's right.

Doctor G: We should be able to find an organ (with HLA tissue match) from a donor of AB blood type. In fact, we should be able to find one very quickly.

Reporter: Do you mean kidneys from living people?

Doctor H: Yes. We also supply livers from living people.

Reporter: Livers from living people?

Doctor H: Yes! Yes!

Reporter: I heard you can supply organs from young, healthy people in their 20's and 30's?

Doctor I: Yes! Yes!

Reporter: I heard they will be harvested from living human beings.

Doctor I: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Reporter: Some labor camps imprison Falun Gong practitioners and then harvest their organs when they are alive?

Doctor I: [Sneering] Right.


The number of patients at the organ transplant centers in China suddenly surged. Major hospitals in China are now working overtime for organ transplant operations.


Doctor J: There are 30 patients right now waiting in line for organ transplant operations.

Reporter: Are you all working overtime for organ transplant operations?

Doctor K: Yes. Yes. Yes. We have several organ transplant teams here working around the clock. We have a total of four teams that can perform organ transplants.

Reporter: Are you doing a lot of organ transplants lately?

Doctor L: Well…that's that.


Several hospitals admitted that they started to do organ transplants since the end of 2000 and that they have performed about 100 ~200 organ transplant operations each year.


Doctor M: We started organ transplants at the end of 2000.

Doctor N: It has been five years since we started organ transplant surgeries.


According to the official statistics of the Chinese Communist regime, there were only 78 liver transplant surgeries in China in eight years between 1991 and 1998. Since the Chinese Communist regime started to suppress Falun Gong in 1999, the number of liver transplants doubled and tripled in number. China has become the country with the largest number of liver transplants in the world. The number of liver transplants in China in 1999, 2000 and 2001 was 118, 254 and 486, respectively. In 2002, the number increased to 996. In 2003, the number of liver transplants in China jumped to over 3000. The statistics clearly show that the number of human organ donors suddenly has increased rapidly since 1999. We are using liver transplant as an example because each human being has only one liver. A human being will not survive once his liver is removed.


Doctor O: In China, we get our supply of human organs from the same place. How do I explain it to you? Only we doctors know where the organs are from.


Since Sujiatun Concentration Camp was exposed to the world, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG)immediately started an investigation all over China. Their investigation revealed that there are at least eight provinces and cities in China that harvest internal organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, including Henan Province, Shandong Province, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning Province and Hubei Province. Employees and surgeons in hospitals of these areas guaranteed the investigators they could supply Falun Gong practitioners' internal organs.
 
Report Affirms Organ Harvesting Claims in China

Report Affirms Organ Harvesting Claims in China
By Cindy Chan
Epoch Times Ottawa Staff
Jul 07, 2006

OTTAWA — A 45-page report based on an independent investigation by former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia Pacific) David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas into allegations of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong prisoners in China was released Thursday at a press conference on Canada's Parliament Hill. The report finds these allegations credible.

The result is not a surprise. Last month Kilgour spoke of the existence of "persuasive material" supporting the claims of organ harvesting. Earlier this week Kilgour told the Canada's CTV News that he is now convinced the allegations are true. "They take both kidneys, then the heart and the skin and the corneas and the liver, and your body is then thrown in the incinerator," he said.

The report is the result of "weeks of research, evidence verification, and witness interviews in Canada and the United States," Kilgour said. In an interview with The Epoch Times Tuesday, Matas added that their investigation included phoning into China.

The Epoch Times first broke the story of organs being taken from living Falun Gong practitioners on March 9, publishing an interview with a journalist who had worked in the area of Shenyang City in Northeastern China and claimed to have sure knowledge of this horrific practice. That report led in turn to intensive investigations by The Epoch Times and by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong. (W.O.I.P.F.G.)

Transcripts of earlier phone investigations posted on the website of W.O.I.P.F.G. provide a disturbing glimpse into the organ harvesting.

In one conversation with a doctor at a Shanghai hospital, when asked whether there are organs from Falun Gong practitioners, the doctor replied, "What we have here is all this type."

Falun Gong's Clearwisdom.net website has continuously published leads from sources inside China meant to assist investigators.

One article tells of Falun Gong practitioners in Shijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp being given blood tests during the first six months of 2005 as part of a so-called "medical check-up." Blood matching is required for finding compatible donors for organ transplants.

Another article points to a recent advertisement by the Armed Police General Division Hospital in Hebei Province offering an "ample supply of donor organs" at its organ transplant centre.

One Clearwisdom report noted that, "within a week, between June 8 and June 15, 2006, surgeons at the Anzhen Hospital in Beijing performed three heart transplants." "According to a witness, a group of people wearing camouflage uniforms delivered the hearts," the report continued. "The medical staff was told not to answer phone calls from Falun Gong practitioners and not to reveal any related information," according to the report.

Kilgour met with Chinese embassy staff member Mr. Sun June 23 to discuss the terms and conditions of a fact-finding trip to China. According to Matas, Kilgour found instead that "what Mr. Sun was interested in doing was refuting the allegations." In a subsequent CTV News report Chinese diplomat Zhang Weidong asserted that "These allegations are based on lies."

However, Matas said he and Kilgour "are prepared to follow up their report and do further investigations." He added that they would still be interested in going to China "if the Chinese government is willing subsequently to respond to our request."

The Chinese government routinely rejects criticism of its atrocious human rights record as interference of its internal affairs.

Matas has the opposite opinion. "It is a matter of international concerns and not a matter of internal affairs," he told The Epoch Times , "because we have a common bond and concern and solidarity with all human beings, no matter where they are."

"When human rights are violated, it's the rights of all humanity that are violated, not just the rights of the individual who is violated," Matas said.

He noted that their report includes recommendations for the Canadian government and public as well as other governments in the international community.

Additional reporting by Masha Loftus.
 
Organ sales 'thriving' in China

Chinese officials say the prisoners volunteer to donate their organs
The sale of organs taken from executed prisoners appears to be thriving in China, an undercover investigation by the BBC has found.
Organs from death row inmates are sold to foreigners who need transplants.

One hospital said it could provide a liver at a cost of £50,000 ($94,400), with the chief surgeon confirming an executed prisoner could be the donor.

China's health ministry did not deny the practice, but said it was reviewing the system and regulations.

'Present to society'

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes visited No 1 Central Hospital in Tianjin, ostensibly seeking a liver for his sick father.

Officials there told him that a matching liver could be available in three weeks.

One official said that the prisoners volunteered to give their organs as a "present to society".

It is a complete fabrication... to say that China forcibly takes organs from the people given the death penalty for the purpose of transplanting them

Qin Gang
Foreign ministry spokesman
28 March 2006


Send us your views

He said there was currently an organ surplus because of an increase in executions ahead of the 1 October National Day.

China executes more prisoners than any other country in the world. In 2005, at least 1,770 people were executed, although true figures were believed to be much higher, a report by human rights group Amnesty International said.

In March, China's foreign ministry admitted that organs from prisoners were used, but said that it was only in "a very few cases".

Spokesman Qin Gang said that the organs were not taken forcibly, but only with the express permission of the convict.

But whether prisoners really are free to make up their own minds on organ donation just before they are executed is not at all clear, our correspondent says.

In April 2006, top British transplant surgeons condemned the practice as unacceptable and a breach of human rights.

But the No 1 Central Hospital carried out 600 liver transplants last year, our correspondent says, and the organ transplant industry has become big business.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5386720.stm
 
Dingo667 said:
Now that is a sensible idea :yeay:

Yeah. If only medicene had been more advanced Mengle could have put 6 million sets of organs to good use.
 
Tsunami victims 'selling kidneys'
BY TN Gopalan
BBC News, Madras



Many fishermen say they cannot make ends meet
The government in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has launched an inquiry into reports of the sale of kidneys by the families of poor fishermen.

Local newspapers say that a number of fishermen's wives in the state have been forced to sell their kidneys because of financial pressures.

Those selling their kidneys are believed to have been displaced by the tsunami of December 2004.

Kidney sales are prohibited in India, but donations by relatives are allowed.

Deep distress

While analysts say that the rehabilitation of tsunami survivors has generally been satisfactory in Tamil Nadu, for some the pace has been relatively slow.

Displaced fishermen have been put up in temporary camps which in places are some distance from the sea.


Much of Tamil Nadu's fishing fleet was destroyed in the tsunami

That adds to their transportation costs and means they have less time in their vessels.

The construction of permanent houses closer to the coast line is way behind the schedule earlier announced by the government.

In some families, where the men folk have suffered permanent injuries from the tsunami, women are forced to bear the brunt of running the household. Many of these families say they are now in deep distress.

Now the women in these families are resorting to selling their kidneys.

A few have already done so, and others say they intend to follow suit.

Fishermen's families living in a temporary camp near Madras told the BBC they had no other way of offsetting a financial crisis.

Lured

Aid groups working in the area say at least 50 people may have sold away their kidneys so far, and many more are waiting in the queue.

The District Magistrate in Madras, R Jaya, told the BBC's Tamil service that the trend was disturbing, particularly when the government had gone all out to provide relief to all tsunami survivors.



She said the government was collecting the details of all such illegal kidney sales.

She said new initiatives targeting tsunami-stricken families were now on the cards.

Kidney sales by poor people have been reported in the past, but this is the first time that tsunami survivors are reported to have been lured into the trade.

A human kidney can fetch a price of 100,000 Indian rupees (around $2,200), but sellers get only 50% of that money - intermediaries are believed to walk away with the rest.

Although doctors say some people can lead a relatively normal life with just a single kidney, it is an area fraught with medical complications.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6266641.stm
 
Friday, 2 February 2007
Pay Organ Donors, Stop Dangerous Organ Trade
Topic: Organ Donation

Maybe organ donors should get paid? Not by shady brokers who abandon donors without medical care, but by governments or health insurance organizations. Payment could come in the form of free healthcare for life (after all, organ donation creates a patient that could have chronic medical problems), or possibly cash.

These are some suggestions from Jim Warren, a journalist who covers the world of organ transplantation closer than probably anyone. He puts out a weekly and monthly version of his newsletter Transplant News. He's heard all of the arguments for and against payment for organ donation, and comes out believing that we have to at least test a payment system. Because, obviously, just telling people they can't do it isn't working, as evidenced by the situation in India.

Warren related an anecdote to me from an Indian surgeon to put the issue in perspective. The surgeon was at a conference in the United States, and had been badgered repeatedly by American transplant surgeons on the point that payment for organs in India just had to be stopped. Finally, the Indian surgeon had his say. He said he understood what the American surgeons were saying, but that they had to understand that getting paid $5,000 (or similar amount) for an organ for poor Indian person meant they could educate their entire family and live off of that money for the rest of their lives. There's just too much incentive.

What do you think? Should organ donors get paid? If not, how do we stop the shady brokerage of organs?

Posted by Kristen Philipkoski 12:29 PM

http://blog.wired.com/biotech/2007/02/p ... donor.html

More comments at link above.
 
Indians Buy Organs With Impunity

By Scott Carney
08:00 AM Feb, 08, 2007

CHENNAI, India -- Police raids here last month that led to the arrests of at least three alleged dealers in human kidneys have thrown a spotlight on lapses by local medical regulators and recharged the global debate over legalized organ sales.

More than 500 people across the state of Tamil Nadu say they've sold their kidneys to organ brokers, in violation of a ban enacted in 1994. Since then, however, the agency responsible for enforcing the ban has frequently turned a blind eye.

"We do everything in accordance with the letter of the law on paper, but we know that almost all of the documents we see are false," said a member of Tamil Nadu's Transplant Authorization Committee, who spoke to Wired News on condition of anonymity. "It is an open secret. It is either, approve a transplant with forged documents, or a patient is going to die."

Humanitarian arguments excusing black-market organ sales may seem a stretch given the stark danger of exploitation that led to the ban in the first place. Given the failure of India's official system, however, some medical policy experts say some form of legalization may be the best solution.

Under India's 1994 legislation, a state-appointed ethics committee must approve all transplants. The committee must interview all prospective donors before approving each transplant. On average the committee hears 20 requests a week and approves 15. The anonymous committee member said brokers routinely produce forged documents so that the transaction takes on the appearance of legality.

"The major issue as far as India is concerned is getting rid of the brokers. This would mean government regulation or administration of any compensation policy that would be developed," said Transplant News editor Jim Warren, who advocates compensating people at a standard rate and providing state-sponsored health insurance for life.

Such a system, however, might not work if the state is offering less than the global market, says Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a medical anthropology professor at the University of California at Berkeley and founding director of Organs Watch.

"Free health care sounds good on paper, but the problem is that when a country goes legal then it enters into competition with the international market in organ transplant tourism," says Scheper-Hughes. "When the state offers incentives along with a lesser pay scale, but a broker from another country offers slightly more cash without the medical benefits, most people opt for the cash and you run into the same problems you had before legalization."

The Tamil Nadu agency has unofficially sanctioned the illegal organ trade for the past 13 years, the unnamed committee member said. Without illegal organ trade, he says, patients have no hope because in India, organ donation after death is extremely rare. Without incentive, donors are practically nonexistent.

The committee member denies that brokers bribed members of the transplant committee. But local police believe there's more behind the Tamil Nadu organ trade than altruism.

"These brokers are not rich people," said police superintendent Chandrabasu (his only name) of the Crime Branch Central Investigation Department in Chennai. "Out of the (several thousand dollars) they took as their commission from the operation, most of that went to bribes. They would only make about ($300) per transaction in the end."

Flouting the law may have saved lives; but, by allowing brokers to operate with impunity, the Transplant Authorization Committee has allowed poor people to fall victim to organ brokers -- the same problem that was rampant before the 1994 organ donation law.

In January, a group of poverty-stricken women living in a tsunami refugee camp 7.5 miles north of Chennai confessed at a public meeting that they sold their kidneys through brokers.

"When I went to the ethics committee, there were four other women sitting next to me who had also been arranged by the broker," said one of the refugees, known as Rani (her only name), in an interview with Wired News.

She said she received only about $900 of the $3,300 she was promised by the broker who arranged her transplant. "We went up one at a time and all (the committee) did was ask me if I was willing to donate my kidney and to sign a paper. It was very quick."

With no viable solution in sight, the Tamil Nadu Transplant Authorization Committee took matters into its own hands, and authorities are scrambling to respond.

The police have three brokers in custody for forgery, according to superintendent Chandrabasu. The director of Medical Services says his division is investigating reports that 52 hospitals may have been involved in illegal transplants.

Tamil Nadu's health minister last week suggested possible ways of strengthening the government ethics committee. He did not return phone calls requesting comment for this story.

- - -

Scott Carney is a freelance contributor to Wired News and writes for the Bodyhack blog.


www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0 ... n_index_17
 
Why a Kidney (Street Value: $3,000) Sells for $85,000
Scott Carney 05.08.07 | 2:00 AM

The overcrowded municipal slums in Aynavaram, India, on the north side of Chennai form one of the nicer kidneyvakkams in the city.

View Slideshow
CHENNAI, India -- Aadil Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan is one of the top medical facilities in the region, rated on par with any hospital in the West, according to the International Organization for Standardization.

Kidney-transplant candidates stuck on a 10-year waiting list in the United States might happily pay a consultant $35,000 or more to book an operation here. Or, they could arrange it themselves for less than half that price.

These days, Aadil openly advertises two packages for transplant patients at steep discounts to the brokered rate: $14,000 for the first transplant, $16,000 for people who need a second organ after the first has failed.

Surgeons, Slums and Money: Organ Trafficking in India


Black-Market Scandal Shakes India's Ban on Organ Sales

Inside 'Kidneyville': Rani's Story

Why a Kidney (Street Value: $3,000) Sells for $85,000

The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation

Portrait: A Land Ravaged by Tsunami and Kidney Brokers

Infographic: Where in the World Can I Buy a Heart?

"You do not have to worry about the donor. We shall provide a live donor arranged through a humanitarian organization, which has hundreds," said Abdul Waheed Sheikh, CEO of Aadil Hospital in an e-mail interview with Wired News.

Scarcity has long been a key driver of the global kidney market, but in regions like India, Brazil, Pakistan and China, sellers are dealing with signs of a surplus. Operations that once set back patients tens of thousands of dollars on the black market can now be had for a fraction of the cost in some places.

The price of a kidney transplant at one of the best hospitals in the Philippines, where organ sales are legal, was recently just $6,316, according to a 2005 report by the Philippine Information Agency. That compares to prices as high as $85,000 charged by professional organ hunters who place Western patients with donors from the slums of Manila.

Yet, legalization has seemingly not worked to alleviate the supply shortage for the patient. Legal confusion, fear and an information gap have created a classic arbitrage scenario for connected vendors, and the vast profits available to the middlemen have entrenched market inequities and dented reform efforts, experts say.

Falling prices have hit the lowest end of the chain hardest. In South Asia, sellers work through organ brokers who on average pay only a few thousand dollars for a healthy kidney, assuming they pay at all. And that's despite booming demand. The World Health Organization in 2002 pegged the global number of people suffering from diabetes at 171 million. By 2030 the number will climb to more than 366 million.

"Each country and each region therein has completely different situations than the next one," explained a Los Angeles-based organ finder doing business online at the website liver4you.org, who asked to be identified only as Mitch. "Since most overseas transplants are doctor-controlled, like (from) private medical practice in the United States, there is a wide range in prices ... The donors are in such huge supply where it's legal, like the Philippines, so they have to accept the average of $3,000 (for selling their kidneys)."

Savings are rarely passed on to the buyer. Once the organs move from the streets into the medical supply chain, their value inflates quickly. Mitch said he typically charges between $35,000 and $85,000 for kidney transplants. Depending on where those operations take place, Mitch could clear $25,000 or more per transaction.

"When Iran legalized live donations, they bought the argument that the short supply of kidneys was really only a marketing problem," said Nancy Scheper-Hughes whose nonprofit Organs Watch monitors organ trade around the world. "But by making the government responsible for managing the black-market kidney trade, the so-called transplant coordinators were turned into brokers and kidney hunters -- or more accurately into thugs who troll the streets and homeless shelters for people to donate on the cheap."

In Chennai, K. Karppiah is widely considered one of the most active players in the kidney trade, having been fingered by dozens of organ donors from the slums north of the city. He declined requests to be interviewed for this story.

When a reporter visited his house, a man outside was laying asphalt. "Everyone knows Karppiah," he said. "On this street, all the houses are his."

- - -

Scott Carney is an investigative journalist based in Chennai, India.

www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2007/ ... nts_prices
 
Serb prisoners had their internal organs removed and sold by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war, according to allegations in a new book by the world's best known war crimes prosecutor.

wkosovo111a.jpg


Carla Del Ponte: allegation

Carla Del Ponte, who stepped down in January as chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, said investigators found a house suspected of being a laboratory for the illegal trade.

A senior adviser to Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime minister and a leading member of the Kosovo Liberation Army which is accused of benefiting from the trade, yesterday denied the allegations.

"These are horrible things even to imagine," said Bekim Collaku. "But this is a product of her [Miss Del Ponte's] imagination."

Miss Del Ponte reports that the allegations were made by several sources, one of whom "personally made an organ delivery" to an Albanian airport for transport abroad, and "confirmed information directly gathered by the tribunal".

According to the sources, senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army were aware of the scheme, in which hundreds of young Serbs were allegedly taken by truck from Kosovo to northern Albania where their organs were removed. Miss Del Ponte provides grim details of the alleged organ harvesting, and of how some prisoners were sewn up after having kidneys removed.

"The victims, deprived of a kidney, were then locked up again, inside the barracks, until the moment they were killed for other vital organs. In this way, the other prisoners were aware of the fate that awaited them, and according to the source, pleaded, terrified, to be killed immediately," Miss Del Ponte writes.

The claims in The Hunt: Me and War Criminals have renewed tensions between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence two months ago. In it, the Swiss ex-prosecutor reveals how her efforts to bring alleged war criminals to justice were stymied by lack of co-operation from all sides - Serb, Albanian and even Nato. But it is her report of the organ traffic that has caused most shock, even in a region long hardened to horror.

wkosovo111c.jpg


Hashim Thaci [centre] in 1999 while head of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s political directorate

Vladan Batic, Serbia's former justice minister, said: "If her allegations are true, then this is the most monstrous crime since the times of Mengele, and it must be made a priority, not only of the domestic judiciary but also of the Hague Tribunal." The book reports a visit by Hague tribunal investigators to a house south of the Albanian town of Burrel where they found traces of blood across a wide area, as well as medical equipment.

"The investigators found pieces of gauze, a used syringe and two plastic IV bags encrusted with mud and empty bottles of medicine, some of which was of a muscle relaxant often used in surgical operations," she writes. However, she concludes that the finds do not amount to sufficient proof for a war crimes tribunal. In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, an association of families of Serbs still listed as missing since the Kosovo war, said it would sue Miss Del Ponte, alleging that she had failed to act over the alleged organ-farming scandal. Serbia's war crimes office announced it had opened its own investigation.

The book has also prompted concern in Switzerland, where it has been criticised for tarnishing the country's celebrated neutrality, particularly as Miss Del Ponte has been named as the Swiss ambassador to Argentina.

In Belgrade, Natasha Kandic, the highly respected head of the investigative Humanitarian Law Centre, said ordinary Serbs "welcome the publication of this book" but said allegations of organ-smuggling were "rumours". "I talked to her many times, she never told me about this," said Miss Kandic.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... erb111.xml

maximus otter
 
I don't know if it was posted on another thread, but I read interesting news in Libération, 1 february 2008. The article, written by Pierre Prakash, titled "Dismantling of a kidney traffic near New Dehli", said that:

"Police found a clandestine hospital in a wealthy house in the town of Gurgaon, near New Dehli. There, organs were transplanted on rich patients, mostly from the USA, Canada, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Greece. They paid 25.000 to 40.000 € for their operation, and were staying in a luxurious guesthouse while waiting for a donor. The organs were taken from poor workers, usually migrants from other indian regions. Taken by fair means or foul. The victims were sent to the network by a number of 'beaters', who worked for a percentage. They used cars equipped with a battery of blood tests. In the best of cases, the 'donors' were paid 900 €. If they refused, they had to comply under the threat of a gun. The police said that it was the greatest organ traffic in India ever found.
Surprisingly, the network was directed by a man, Amit Kumar, who had already been arrested under similar charges. Kumar was in fact Santosh Raut, arrested in Bombay in 1993, for performing illegal kidney transplants. He himself is not a physician. He fled after bailing out. Was arrested at least another time in 2000, his house was searched. Had a tax investigation a few months before, with no one suspecting anything (quite surprising). When the article was published, he was once more on the run, probably in Canada, where he had been a number of times to find new clients.
The police had arrested only a small number of drivers and other accomplices, and one physician (but a true one). They believed that tens of doctors were involved. And that great neurologists, with a wealthy clientele of Indians and foreigners, send patients to the network for a percentage. At least five US and Greek citizens were found in the guesthouse. "

I had read in The X-Files Book of the Unexplained vol.2 that a Dr Siddaraju had been arrested in Bangalore, under suspicion of removing a kidney against the will of his patient. And was awaiting trial. The names and locations are different, but is there a link between the two cases? Can anyone confirm what the article said? It would be the first time, to my knowledge, that it is confirmed that people had their organs removed against their will. This article involves many features of the urban legend. Maybe too many, it seems too good to be true.
 
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:D

Man held over church organ theft
Stolen church organ
The organ was taken from the church last week
A man has been arrested in connection with the theft of an organ from a church in Lanarkshire.

The instrument, valued at £60,000, was stolen from St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Uddingston last Tuesday.

Strathclyde Police said a 33-year-old man had been arrested and was detained in police custody in connection with the incident.

A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal and the man is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

The dark oak-coloured three-tier organ is approximately 5ft high and 5ft wide.
 
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