When Infants Are Forced to Be Organ Donors in China

(Minghui.org) When the Children’s Large Organ Transplantation Center was opened at Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai on May 21, 2024, over 100 pediatricians from across China attended the ceremony and the meeting that followed. This made many parents panic. After all, when high school student Hu Xinyu from Jiangxi Province vanished from his school in 2022, the police announced (over three months later) that he had committed suicide—even though numerous pieces of evidence showed he had actually died of organ harvesting. 

There have been many instances of missing children of late. Even after their bodies were found, officials often had them cremated without allowing their parents to see them. This is similar to what has happened to many Falun Dafa practitioners whose organs were harvested. After all, what would these parents do if they saw that organs were missing from their dead children?

Over 20 years ago, former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin instructed the authorities on how to handle Falun Dafa practitioners: “If you beat them to death, there will be no consequences—it will be counted as suicide. And send their [bodies] to be cremated straightaway, without checking their identities.” Considering practitioners a source of premium organs, Jiang’s followers created a gigantic organ supply chain in China. After the crime was exposed in the international media in 2006, some people in Chinese were doubtful about the veracity of the reports, because they could not imagine that the CCP could be so callous. But now they know the hard reality. 

In China, using organs and tissue from young children and infants started many years ago. Back then, because of technical difficulties and complications from the transplantation of small organs and infant tissue, newborns were not qualified to be organ donors, and less than 1% of the tissue and organs transplanted came from babies under a year old. But the continued organ shortage and technical improvements over the years had now made newborns potential organ donors. 

Worldwide, Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) normally refers to organ donation from patients after death is confirmed based on cardio-respiratory criteria. But in China, where financial interests and political power dominate, the number of cases in which parents are pressured to “volunteer” to provide their child’s organs could be very high compared to parents who do so out of their own will. Plus, in China, where brutal political “common sense” rules, taking organs from young children or infants is often done without explanation. 

Transplanting organs from children is not uncommon in China. Many such operations take place in Shanghai, which elderly CCP senior officials find convenient. Even the tightly controlled news media in China has leaked such information from time to time. 

Haixi Morning Newspaper reported in October 2021 that, “an infant only two days old donated two kidneys and was the youngest organ donor in China.” The reporter said the information came from Renji Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine on October 12, 2021.

A reporter surnamed Chen reported in Pengpai News on February 27, 2023, that doctors from Renji Hospital had been working with Shanghai Children’s Medical Center to overcome the limits of youth and low body weight for kidney transplant donors. In particular, Renji Hospital’s kidney transplant team has been exploring the problem of neonatal kidney transplants. Medical experts from Renji Hospital said that, worldwide, there is little data and few guidelines in this area, so their clinical experiences involving neonatal donor kidneys will be extremely valuable. 

Similarly, Morning News from Hunan Province reported on May 21 that Shanghai Children’s Hospital of Fudan University had “carried out 102 organ transplants since its first successful surgery in December 2022. Among these were 89 kidney transplants, 9 liver transplants, and 4 heart transplants. This makes it the children's hospital with the highest number of kidney transplant surgeries in the country in 2023.”

As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I know this situation is similar to the forced organ harvesting that practitioners have been subjected to over the past 20 years. When I was arrested and detained for my belief, I often explained to officials that it is wrong to persecute innocent practitioners. “I have no choice because they pay me good money,” some kind officers would tell me. “You can sue me wherever you want,” others less kind often said to me. 

The persecution of Falun Dafa has gone on for 25 years, and all manner of things that go against the Chinese Constitution have been done. Although the CCP ignores and misrepresents the law to suppress practitioners, anyone involved knows the persecution policy is wrong because it deprives Falun Dafa practitioners of their basic rights. 

Many events in history have shown that doing evil ultimately leads to destruction. Those who persecute innocent Falun Dafa practitioners will face serious consequences. Quitting the CCP organizations and supporting those who are upright will keep one safe and healthy.