Horror in China: Prisoners of Conscience have their organs harvested for 'transplant tourism

'Oh my God, this is real'

Internal organs, like liver and kidneys, even eye corneas, are reportedly being harvested from imprisoned practitioners of the Falun Gong faith, says new documentary. Formed through hard-hitting unbelievable news and first-hand testimonies of former detainees and surgeons, the documentary is set to air online this week coinciding with the U.S. visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Despite roaring rumors from 2006, the world opted not to believe, which was investigated why throughout the film.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "A number of people have come up with such strong evidence, but they are consistently ignored," said Ken Stone, director of the upcoming PBS documentary Hard to Believe. Stone claims his team was bothered by how the evidence and issues have been given little international attention, which they are attempting to change following the release of the film. 

The documentary team explored research conducted by investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann and a Canadian investigative team including David Matas, a human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour. 

Gutmann told MailOnline, "There's a general tendency to not want to look atrocities in the face. We acknowledge a terrible atrocity only after it's over. Look at how long it took before the Holocaust was recognized."

Ken Stone said that to him, the most compelling evidence is the testimony of one of the surgeons who performed a live organ harvesting, Dr. Enver Tohti. The doctor, now driving taxi in London, is a native Uyghur from the west China province of Xinjiang and was a young surgeon when he was brought to the execution site. He was ordered to remove the internal organs of a Uyghur man who suffered a gunshot wound. Tohti claimed the man could have survived his wound but he was ordered to remove the organs anyway.

Dr. Tohti was also ordered to "remember nothing happened today." 

The live organ harvesting was said to be a "billion-dollar business industry" by Canadian investigators.

According to Matas and Kilgour, Chinese hospitals charge $30,000 (Ł19,800) per cornea, $62,000 (Ł40,900) for a kidney and $130,000 (Ł86,000) for a liver or heart during their first investigation back in 2006. China became a "tourism destination" for organ transplants, which is alarming considering the Red Cross has only reported 37 people as registered donors across China.

China announced they gave 10,000 transplants annually using organs from executed prisoners but only 2,400 people were executed in 2013, said U.S. based prisoners' rights group Dui Hua.

Gutmann's interviews with former detained Falun Gong practitioners in 1999 led him into the discovery of alarming physical exams details: Instead of testing physical fitness, the exam determined the health of internal organs.

"A chill went down my spine. I thought, 'Oh my God, this is real,'" Gutmann said.

The Falun Gong practice attracted 100 million people in its first 7 years in the 1990's. However, the government feared such a large organization and began the crackdown against its practitioners in 1999, beginning with sect leaders. 

Thousands have been detained by the government from July 20, 1999 and the Chinese government began its systematic atrocities against the sect by repressing their faith, including imprisonment, propaganda and thought reform.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online