(Minghui.org) The governor of Texas on June 7 signed into law TX SCR3, a bill “condemning China's practice of involuntary organ harvesting,” after it passed both the state Senate and House of Representatives.
This bill was introduced in the state Senate in January this year. It was approved in the Senate in April, and in the House of Representatives in May.
“For the better part of two decades, China's communist regime has been engaged in the vile practice of forcibly removing human organs for transplant,” wrote the bill, which also lists numerous evidence of the forced organ harvesting, and urges the U.S. government and the international community to stop this atrocity. It also encourages the medical community to raise awareness of the forced organ harvesting so that Texans will not unwittingly commit such a crime by engaging in transplant tourism in China.
Several newspapers covered this new law. The Dallas Morning News, the largest newspaper in Dallas, reported the bill’s approval in the state legislature on June 1. Citing information from international media, the report said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) targeted hundreds of thousands of detainees for the forced organ harvesting, with Falun Gong practitioners being the primary targets.
The Facts, the largest newspaper in Brazoria County, published a letter from local resident Ms. Jiang, who thanked state representatives for supporting this bill. According to Donate Life Texas, the only official organ and tissue donor registry in the state, about 60% of residents in Brazoria County have registered for organ donation. Still, it takes several years to find a matching kidney or liver. In China, less than 0.02% of the population is registered for organ donations, but organs can be obtained within two weeks. Researchers found that prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners, had been killed for their organs in China.
By raising this moral issue, SCR3 will help more people to become aware of this tragedy. Before going to China for an organ transplant, people should evaluate the situation and reconsider their decision if the promised organs would be taken from non-consenting donors.
New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung in the Greater San Antonio area published a letter from Ms. Lamb on June 19. She praised SCR3 because it would inform Texans of the risks of having organ transplants in China. Forced organ harvesting is an inhuman crime, and she wanted to thank the legislative support on this matter.
Montgomery County Gazette in the Greater Houston area published a letter on June 20 from a reader named Ms. Liu Jing. She was in China when the CCP began to suppress Falun Gong in 1999, and there was massive hate propaganda targeting Falun Gong. With no access to independent news, she believed the defamatory propaganda. She did not know what Falun Gong really was until 2004 when she moved to the U.S. A Chinese friend told her the facts about Falun Gong and about the benefits brought by the practice. She subsequently began to practice Falun Gong.
Because of her own experience, Ms. Liu knew many Chinese people have been deceived by the CCP. As a result, she has been working with other practitioners informing both Chinese and Americans of Falun Gong and the persecution. She believes the suppression will come to an end when more people know about the CCP’s brutality and lies.
Austin American-Statesman, the major daily newspaper in Austin, published a letter on June 16 from local resident William Yu. He thanked lawmakers for passing SCR3, saying, “The right to seek treatment through transplantation must not be traded for another person’s right to life.”
William’s father Mr. Yu Xinhui was one of the witnesses who testified at the legislative hearing. Because of practicing Falun Gong, the elder Mr. Yu was sentenced to six years and was tortured in prison. “While there, he underwent physical examinations and blood tests that were obviously not for his health, since he was also tortured, but were consistent with organ matching,” wrote William.
In his testimony, the elder Mr. Yu said many inmates knew of organ harvesting and guards often used it to threaten inmates who disobeyed orders. One doctor in the prison was from the same town as Mr. Yu and he confirmed that. The doctor said Falun Gong practitioners are very healthy and their organs are the best. Inmates were often on drugs or were alcoholics, making their organs often unsuitable. The doctor also implied that were Mr. Yu not to give up his practice of Falun Gong, his internal organs could be taken for transplant, including his heart, liver, spleen, and lungs.
Mr. Yu was from Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. After beginning to practice Falun Gong in 1994, the severe gastric illness that bothered him for many years was cured. This gave him hope for life.
After the CCP began to persecute Falun Gong, he started to tell people around him about the facts of Falun Gong. He was arrested in 2001 and held at the Sihui Prison in Guangdong Province for six years, during which time he was tortured, beaten, humiliated, and injected with unknown drugs.
Mr. Yu said that the prison transferred some detainees, from a dozen to a few dozen, every year. No one knew where they were taken. At midnight one day in 2006, several vehicles arrived, including buses, military vehicles, and medical emergency vehicles. Many armed police officers came into the prison and told detainees not to look, not to talk, and to just stay in bed facing the wall. Anyone whose name got called out should just leave without taking any belongings. Every one in the cell was frightened and in despair, Mr. Yu recalled. Three detainees were called out at that time. He also heard that some detainees were also taken away from other cells. Their belongings were left behind and they never came back.
At the end of his testimony, Mr. Yu expressed hope that more people would help stop the crime of organ harvesting, so that innocent lives can be saved.
After unanimous approval in the state Senate on April 15, SCR3 was also passed unanimously in the state House of Representatives on May 20. Governor Greg Abbott then signed it into law on June 7, 2021.
The bill began by citing findings from the independent China Tribunal in 2019 and describes transplant tourism in China. “Falun Gong, a spiritual practice centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, became immensely popular in the 1990s; in July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched an intensive, nationwide persecution designed to eradicate the spiritual practice,” it wrote, “Freedom House reported in 2015 that Falun Gong practitioners are the primary victims of forced organ removal and face an elevated risk of dying or being killed in custody.”
In addition, it cited commitments from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “We call on the PRC government to immediately end its depraved abuse and mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners, release those imprisoned due to their beliefs, [. . .] and address the whereabouts of missing practitioners. Twenty-one years of persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is far too long, and it must end,” he said on July 20, 2020.
“The 87th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby strongly condemn China's practice of involuntary organ harvesting,” wrote the law. Furthermore, the legislature “encourage the medical community to educate Texans about the risks of travel to China for organ transplants to help prevent Texas residents from unwittingly becoming involved in murder in the form of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience.”
In conclusion, the legislature “respectfully urge the United States Congress and the president of the United States to pass laws and adopt measures prohibiting collaboration between U.S. medical and pharmaceutical companies and any Chinese counterparts linked with forced organ harvesting, banning entry into the United States of those who have participated in unethical removal of human tissues and organs, and providing for the prosecution of such individuals.”
Related Report:Texas State Senate Passes Resolution Condemning the CCP’s Organ Harvesting Crimes