Australian Senate Joins Spain, Israel, and Taiwan Against Unethical Organ Tourism
The Australian Senate passed motion 121 on November 24, 2016, that acknowledges the problem of unethical organ harvesting in foreign countries, including forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience.
It has recommended the Australian government legislate against its citizens traveling overseas to procure organs from non-consenting donors.
The motion was moved by Victorian Greens Senator Janet Rice, and Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz, who are both on the senate committee covering foreign affairs.
“I am very pleased that earlier today the Senate agreed to a motion put forward by Senator Abetz and myself—there is not much that Senator Abetz and I agree on, but we agreed on this one,” she said.
According to Senator Rice, evidence from researchers estimate there are as many as 1.5 million victims of organ harvesting in China.
“The organs have come from executed prisoners and prisoners of conscience, mainly Falun Gong practitioners, but also Christians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs,” she said.
At a Senate hearing on Thursday, October 20, Senator Abetz probed the head of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as to why they were not reasonably informed about allegations of organ transplant abuse from a recent 700 page report that details a state-run industry in China conducting between 60,000 and 100,000 transplants a year.
Motion 121 points to legislation passed in Spain, Israel, and Taiwan against transplant tourism and calls for a national register on Australians going overseas for transplant surgery including recording the country they are going to.