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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 343 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
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 practitioners and members of other 
                 religious and ethnic minority groups.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 25, 2015

 Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (for herself, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Poe 
 of Texas, Mr. Diaz-Balart, Ms. Brownley of California, Mr. Farr, and 
Mr. Valadao) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
 the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on 
   the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
    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 practitioners and members of other 
                 religious and ethnic minority groups.

Whereas when performed in accordance with ethical standards, the medical 
        discipline of organ transplantation is one of the great achievements of 
        modern medicine;
Whereas Chinese authorities reported in 2011 that the majority of organs used 
        for transplantation in China were procured from executed prisoners;
Whereas voluntary and informed consent is the precondition for ethical organ 
        donation and international medical organizations state that prisoners, 
        deprived of their freedom, are not in the position to give free consent 
        and that the practice of sourcing organs from prisoners is a violation 
        of ethical guidelines in medicine;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China and Communist Party of 
        China continue to deny reports that many organs are taken without the 
        consent of prisoners yet at the same time prevents independent 
        verification of its transplant system;
Whereas the organ transplantation system in China does not comply with the World 
        Health Organization's requirement of transparency and traceability in 
        organ procurement pathways;
Whereas the United States Department of State Country Report on Human Rights for 
        China for 2013 stated, ``Advocacy groups continued to report instances 
        of organ harvesting from prisoners'';
Whereas Huang Jiefu, director of the China Organ Donation Committee, announced 
        in December 2014 that China would end the practice of organ harvesting 
        from executed prisoners by January 1, 2015, but failed to address organ 
        harvesting from prisoners of conscience;
Whereas rates of voluntary organ donation in China remain severely depressed and 
        are insufficient to account for the volume of organ transplant 
        procedures performed;
Whereas Falun Gong, a spiritual practice involving meditative ``qigong'' 
        exercises and centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and 
        tolerance, became immensely popular in the 1990s;
Whereas in July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched an intensive, 
        nationwide persecution designed to eradicate the spiritual practice of 
        Falun Gong, reflecting the party's long-standing intolerance of large 
        independent civil society groups;
Whereas since 1999, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been 
        detained extra-legally in reeducation-through-labor camps, detention 
        centers, and prisons, where torture and abuse are routine;
Whereas in many detention facilities and labor camps, Falun Gong prisoners of 
        conscience comprise the majority of the population, and have been said 
        to receive the longest sentences and the worst treatment;
Whereas former Falun Gong prisoners of conscience have reported receiving 
        targeted medical exams in detention designed to assess the health of 
        their organs, which other prisoner groups were generally not subjected 
        to;
Whereas Freedom House reported in 2015 that Falun Gong practitioners comprise 
        the largest portion of prisoners of conscience in China, and face an 
        elevated risk of dying or being killed in custody;
Whereas in 2006, Canadian researchers David Matas, human rights attorney, and 
        David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, 
        conducted an independent investigation into allegations of organ 
        harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners in China, and concluded that Falun 
        Gong prisoners were the only plausible source for 41,500 organ 
        transplants performed from 2000 to 2005;
Whereas their report found that agents of the Chinese state have conducted 
        ``large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners'', 
        whose vital organs ``were seized involuntarily for sale at high prices, 
        sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary 
        donations of such organs in their home countries'';
Whereas Matas and Kilgour have implicated state and party entities in illicit 
        organ harvesting, including domestic security services and military 
        hospitals;
Whereas researcher and journalist Ethan Gutmann estimates that approximately 
        65,000 Falun Gong adherents may have been killed for their organs from 
        2000 to 2008, and that a number of other religious and ethnic minorities 
        may also have been targeted;
Whereas Gutmann published findings that Chinese security agencies began 
        harvesting organs from members of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur ethnic 
        minority group in the 1990s, including from Uyghur political prisoners;
Whereas the United Nations Committee Against Torture and the Special Rapporteur 
        on Torture have expressed concern over the allegations of organ 
        harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners, and have called on the Government 
        of the People's Republic of China to increase accountability and 
        transparency in the organ transplant system and punish those responsible 
        for abuses; and
Whereas the killing of religious or political prisoners for the purpose of 
        selling their organs for transplant is an egregious and intolerable 
        violation of the fundamental right to life: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns the practice of state-sanctioned forced organ 
        harvesting in the People's Republic of China;
            (2) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China and Communist Party of China to immediately end the 
        practice of organ harvesting from all prisoners of conscience;
            (3) demands an immediate end to the 16-year persecution of 
        the Falun Gong spiritual practice by the Government of the 
        People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China, 
        and the immediate release of all Falun Gong practitioners and 
        other prisoners of conscience;
            (4) encourages the United States medical community to help 
        raise awareness of unethical organ transplant practices in 
        China;
            (5) calls on the People's Republic of China to allow a 
        credible, transparent, and independent investigation into organ 
        transplant abuses; and
            (6) calls on the United States Department of State to 
        conduct a more detailed analysis on state-sanctioned organ 
        harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the 
        annual Human Rights Report, and report annually to Congress on 
        the implementation of section 1182f of title 8, United States 
        Code, barring provision of visas to Chinese and other nationals 
        engaged in coerced organ or bodily tissue transplantation.
                                 <all>
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