(Clearwisdom.net) The following is from an article on MEP Caroline Lucas's website. Ms. Lucas had previously written a letter to the EU Commission's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner calling for an investigation into the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. The letter is republished below the article.
GREEN Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has called on China to halt the use of 'donated' organs from executed prisoners -- and systematic 'organ harvesting' from incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience.
Dr Lucas, who has signed a petition calling for the United Nations and World Health Organization to investigate, said, "Organ transplants have saved thousands of lives and have the potential to save millions more -- but the organs used must be freely donated in accordance with international human rights law.
"China is reported to be offering an 'organ matching service' implying a systematic organ harvesting policy, and trading in the body parts of executed prisoners who have not given consent to such donations.
"This is a fundamental breach of human rights and must be stamped out immediately."
The MEP's intervention comes after reports of mass harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners held in Chinese concentration camps. According to the Chinese reports, organs are removed from prisoners while they are still alive and their bodies then destroyed in an on-site crematorium. Previous media coverage has exposed similar practices at Suijatun camp in Liaoning Province.
As well as being a horrific breach of human rights, any use of executed prisoners' organs contravenes a 1998 European Parliamentary resolution which condemned the practice and called on the EU Commission and member state governments to initiate an international ban on the trade of human organs, and to establish an international committee of inquiry to investigate the trade.
Last month the EU Commission's Foreign Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner wrote to Dr Lucas, admitting little had been done and dismissing recent reports from China as unfounded.
Dr Lucas added: "It seems the illegal trade in human organs for transplant is flourishing in China, and political prisoners are being executed in an 'organ harvesting' process.
"I call on the UN's Human Rights Committee and the World Health Organization to investigate immediately, and the EU to take the lead on establishing an international framework for halting the practice once and for all."
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Dear Commissioner,
In 1998 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the organs trade in China-a copy is enclosed for your information. The resolution condemned the flourishing trade in the organs of persons sentenced to death and noted that this practice is an infringement of international conventions on the treatment of prisoners. It also called on the Commission and the Council to initiate an international ban on the trade of human organs, and to work alongside the UN to establish an international committee of enquiry to investigate the trade.
On March 15 th of this year The Epoch Times, specialists in media coverage of China, carried a story about the mass harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners held in a Chinese concentration camp. According to the reports, organs are removed from prisoners whilst they are still alive and their bodies then destroyed in on-site crematorium. The newspaper also carries other stories that expose the practices at Suijatun camp in Liaoning Province, China. Please see, for example, www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-3-15/39359.html and http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-3-11/39169.html.
I feel sure that you will share my horror at learning about the trade in human organs from prisoners, and at the apparent scale of the operation conducted at the Sujiatun camp. I trust that you will raise this matter with the Chinese authorities as a matter of the utmost urgency. I would also be pleased to learn what the Commission has done to expose and bring about an end to the global organ trade, and what measures are in place to ensure that European companies are not involved.
Thank you for your time.
Yours sincerely,
Caroline Lucas-Green Party MEP for South East England.