[Editor's note: April 10 -- Psychiatrists from the United States and Britain held a press conference today in Geneva to condemn China's use of psychiatry for political purposes. Dr. Sunny Lu, a psychiatrist and an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati in the United States, made a speech in the conference. The following is her speech.]
Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the press:
My name is Sunny Lu, M.D. I am a psychiatrist and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati in the United States.
A few days ago, on April 7, the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrated its annual World Health Day. Its theme this year is Mental Health and Human Rights. This topic is very timely.
Today I will share with you facts and examples of severe violations of international agreements and standards committed by Chinese doctors who carry out the Chinese Communist Party's campaign of brutal oppression against their own citizens, healthy and innocent people who practice Falun Gong.
HIGHLIGHTS OF PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE IN CHINA:
As you may know, 19 months ago the Chinese Communist regime began a brutal and systematic crackdown on the meditation practice of Falun Gong. The Falun Gong practitioners in China have since been going to Tiananmen Square almost every day to appeal to their government and the world community to lift the ban. These practitioners are quickly rounded up and placed in detention, where they are subjected to all forms of physical torture and mistreatment. Over the past year, PRC President Jiang Zemin has escalated the persecution and has ordered that Falun Gong be "eradicated by any means." The death toll from the crackdown has jumped more than 300% in the last six months to reach over 180. According to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy, more than 50,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been incarcerated, with at least 10,000 having been sentenced to labor camps.
From the outset of the Chinese regime's crackdown on the practice of Falun Gong, police have forced practitioners to be incarcerated in mental health facilities without cause. The government then uses police to control psychiatric facilities in an effort to coerce practitioners to renounce their beliefs. Many reports from inside China indicate that practitioners who continue to express conviction in their spiritual practice are illegally injected with sedatives, anti-psychotic and nerve-damaging drugs. Other abuses include both physical and mental torture.
According to reports, such abuses are occurring in at least 43 psychiatric facilities across China. The length of detention has ranged from seven days to over a year and a half. Torture has left many victims both physically and mentally disabled. Several have died while in detention or shortly after being discharged from the hospitals.
I will share with you two cases as examples:
Case # 1. Su Gang was a 32-year-old computer engineer working at the Qi-Lu Oil Chemical Company. He was repeatedly detained by the security department of his workplace for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. His family has stated that Mr. Su was in good health and had no mental illness prior to his detention. The Washington Post reported: "After traveling to Beijing on April 25th to protest the ban on Falun Gong, he was arrested again; on May 23rd, his employer, a state-run petrochemical company, approved commitment papers that authorized the police to admit him to a mental hospital. According to Mr. Su's father, the doctors injected Mr. Su twice a day with an unknown substance. When Mr. Su emerged a week later, he could not eat or move his limbs normally." Nor could he remember what happened to him in the hospital, and he even stopped speaking. On June 10th the previously healthy young man died.
Case # 2. Shi Bei was a 49 year-old woman who had no history of mental illness. She was involuntarily admitted to Hangzhou Mental Health Hospital. She was administered unknown substances and was later starved to death. Officials from the hospital refused to make comments to the reporter.
Mental hospitals frequently administer heavy doses of medications like Perphenazine, Chlorpromazine, Fluphenazine, Fluorohydroxypiperidine and other unknown substances by force feeding patients or mixing drugs into practitioners' food. As a result, many practitioners suffer tremendously from toxic effects such as: loss of memory, severe headaches, fainting, extreme weakness, uncontrollable tremors, nausea, vomiting, seizures, and loss of consciousness. Some severe cases resemble Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome. There is evidence that medications are being delivered at many times the therapeutic rate and thus often resulting in devastating and irreversible consequences.
In addition, mental hospitals apply other cruel and abusive tactics such as tying individuals to beds and force-feeding medications through nasal-gastric tubing; handcuffing or tying patients up in very painful postures for long periods of time; inserting acupuncture needles deep into the muscles and applying electric current to produce excruciating pain; and burning detainees' skin with electric batons.
According to reports, doctors have made clear statements indicating that Falun Gong practitioners are admitted, not in relation to their health but for political reasons. Some medical staff even taunt practitioners, saying such things as "Aren't you practicing Falun Gong? Let's see which is stronger, Falun Gong or our medicines?" One nurse reportedly stated: "this is the way to persecute[your] religion." Typically, practitioners meet the criteria for discharge only when they stop doing the Falun Gong exercises, or if they sign a pledge to renounce their belief in Falun Gong. In the more unfortunate cases, practitioners were discharged because they were close to dying from abuses. Some psychiatric hospitals rate themselves as being successful in converting Falun Gong practitioners. It is a sad truth that many hospitals in China can now be listed along with state prisons and forced labor camps as government facilities for persecution and torture.
In 1991, the United Nations established "Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Healthcare." According to Principle 4 of this important UN document, "A determination that a person has a mental illness shall be made in accordance with internationally accepted medical standards. A determination of mental illness shall never be made on the basis of political, economic or social status, or membership in a cultural, racial or religious group, or for any other reason not directly relevant to mental health status." Principle 10 states, "Medication shall meet the best health needs of the patient, shall be given to a patient only for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes and shall never be administered as a punishment or for the convenience of others."
China's growing cases of appalling psychiatric abuse blatantly violate these provisions set forth by the United Nations. In addition, the Chinese regime's practices violate all patient rights stated in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, Assembly 1948, to which China is a signatory.
The best hope for a swift end to the abuse of psychiatry in China appears to be forceful condemnation by relevant professional bodies around the world, coupled with thorough legal investigation into these systemic abuses. It is the duty of psychiatrists around the world to do all in their power to bring this nightmare to an end. The misuse and manipulation of psychiatry by the government of China threatens the integrity of psychiatrists everywhere. At the same time, this abuse establishes a horrific precedent that cannot be allowed to stand. The world has seen similar use of psychiatry in the recent pastthe abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union to punish political dissidents. Today, psychiatrists in China are forced to use psychiatric facilities to stifle and suppress freedom of thought, belief, and expression. Falun Gong practitioners are being tortured simply for what they believe. The World Psychiatric Association must speak out as forcefully as possible to let the Chinese government and the world know that such a perversion of psychiatry cannot be allowed.
We cannot hold faith in ourselves as physicians and continue to remain silent on this issue.