US House Foreign Affairs Committee Concerned about Organ Harvesting

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On 16 March 2016, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee marked up H. Res. 343, “expressing concern regarding persistent and credible reports of systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the People’s Republic of China, including from large numbers of Falun Gong…”
“H. Res. 343 was agreed to, as amended, by voice vote. By unanimous consent, the measure, as amended, was ordered favorably reported and the Chair was authorized to seek House consideration of the measure under suspension of the rules.”

Comments from all House Foreign Affairs Committee members can be viewed in the official recording shown below, starting from 41 minutes, 32 seconds into the video.

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher shared some especially moving remarks, beginning at 50 minutes, 15 seconds in:

We’re engaged in this issue for a number of years, and we’ve had numerous testimony[…] It is clear that this massive violation of human rights is taking place in China and we have unfortunately, as a people, turned our heads away in order not to see this evil.

This resolution will make sure that we put everybody on notice that this is not going to be ignored anymore, and that the American people are going to be informed that in fact, we have developed a trading relationship with the world’s worst human rights abuser; let me put that very clearly: more people, their human rights are violated in China, than anywhere else in the world; nowhere is that more symbolic than we have the Falun Gong—which is a group of people who are joined together and united by a philosophy that’s based on peace and justice and truth, and they believe in yoga and meditation—they are a threat to no one…and yet, they are being slaughtered in the secret jail cells throughout China.

And what comes out of those jail cells? Organs that are sent to various places in the world, and let me note this: we need to be committed not only to stopping this practice, but we need to make sure that people who are on the receiving end of these organs, that we deal with that as well, because I believe that these organs are being sold in the United States and that is wrong for us to close our eyes to that. Permitting our doctors to buy a kidney from some prisoner in China who happens to be a Falun Gong member; it is wrong for us to permit a doctor here to transplant that organ, because that is us participating in a crime, in a horrific crime, that shouldn’t be excused.

Let us note that in China, […] there are no newspapers to expose this, there are no rallies that people are permitted to have, no opposition parties that can bring up this issue and say ‘this isn’t the policy we should have.’ The only hope for a change in China, is if we, here, make tough stands on these moral issues. In that degree, our best allies in trying to bring change are the people of China themselves, and by passing resolutions like this, we are proclaiming to the good people of China that we are on their side, and that we too, would condemn this type of horrific activity that does not reflect the moral standards of the people of China, or the people of the United States, or decent people anywhere in the world.

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