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

<DOC>
H. Res. 343

                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                         June 13, 2016.
Whereas when performed in accordance with ethical standards, the medical 
        discipline of organ transplantation is one of the great achievements of 
        modern medicine;
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 2014 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, did not directly address 
        organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience;
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 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 practitioners being killed for their organs was highly probable;
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 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 17-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 232 of 
        the Department of State Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (8 U.S.C. 
        1182f), barring provision of visas to Chinese and other nationals 
        engaged in coerced organ or bodily tissue transplantation.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.
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