(Clearwisdom.net) On April 28, 2006, the Xiaoxiang Morning newspaper in Hunan Province contained the headline: "Twenty Free Organ Transplants." It reported that the Hunan Province People's Hospital will perform twenty free liver or kidney transplants, and patients merely have to call the listed hotline to register. This hospital also used other media such as the Changsha Evening paper and the Hunan Economics TV Station to report the news. According to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, Hunan Province is one of the provinces that seriously persecute Falun Gong. It is believed that a number of forced labor camps there are involved in harvesting live organs from Falun Gong practitioners. The news of free organ transplants raises the question of the legality of the donor sources.

According to the Hunan Economics TV Station, Mrs. Dong Shufang, age 57, and her husband, Mr. Huang, are from Wangcheng County, Changsha City, Hunan Province. They are two of a family of four, all of who have kidney diseases. Mrs. Dong has chronic nephritis and has already reached end-stage kidney failure. She is desperately waiting for a kidney transplant. On April 27, 2006, after one month of trying, the Hunan Province People's Hospital found donor matches for this family of four and is going to perform the transplant surgeries free of charge. Mrs. Dong will be the first case for the free kidney transplant. Mr. Gong Gaoming, age 33, from Tiaomaxiang, Changsha County, will be the first case for a free liver transplant.

According to the person who provided the news, "I was in a somber mood after I read the report. For a hospital that saves and treats patients, there seems to be no cause for criticism. After it was brought to light that the Sujiatun Concentration Camp had been harvesting live organs from Falun Gong practitioners, however, the CCP is attempting a cover-up and is hastening to destroy all evidence of its crimes. Many hospitals are consequently rushing through organ transplant surgeries before June. The news of 'free transplants' raises further suspicion: Is this part of the CCP's criminal acts? In this society, it is hard for the poor to receive a free meal, and it is even harder for the homeless to receive free housing, let alone for anyone to receive a free liver or kidney transplant! Where are the livers and kidneys coming from? Even though we cannot yet prove that they came from Falun Gong practitioners, we nonetheless call on the entire society to help us to investigate this series of events. The hotline for the liver surgery department at the Province People's Hospital is 0731-2278157."

According to Dr. Pang Yubin's analysis, "The matching process for a transplant is completely different in China compared to that of other countries. It is a 'reverse matching' system. In other countries, they use the forward matching system that means the patient waits for the organ. Sometimes, it will take the patient several years to find a matching donor. In China, the reverse matching system is used, meaning that the organ is waiting for the patient. It is very clearly indicated on many Chinese hospital websites that they can find a matching donor within a week."

Some experts figure that a hospital that advertises free transplants is just trying to attract patients, but the offer also made people think that perhaps there are organs waiting and that if they are not used, they will be wasted. The hospital thought it might as well do a dozen free transplants for advertising purposes and also accumulate experience and qualifications.

According to the reporter, there are three large hospitals in Changsha City, Hunan Province. These are the No. 3 Xiangya Hospital of Zhongnan University, the No. 2 Xiangya Hospital of Zhongnan University (formerly the No. 2 Hospital of Hunan Medical College), and the Provincial People's Hospital. Besides handling hundreds of kidney transplants on a yearly basis, the hospitals also performed a large number of heart transplants, as well as transplants for entire livers, entire lungs, pancreas, small intestines, and spleens. Everyone knows that the donor of a heart or entire liver cannot survive after such a surgery, so where did the hospital get all the "donated" organs? It is well worth investigation by the outside world.

This reporter checked into the database offered by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong on their website. There are four to five large forced labor camps and prisons around Changsha City, Hunan Province, and they hold thousands of Falun Gong practitioners. These are Xinkaipu Labor Camp in Changsha City for men, Changsha Women's Labor Camp, Hunan Women's Prison in Changsha, Baimalong Labor Camp in Zhuzhou, and Hunan Chishan Prison for men.

For example, the Xinkaipu Labor Camp is located at the former Switch Factory in the Tianxin District of Changsha City. It used to have eleven squads. On July 28, 2000, it added a "7.28 squad" in order to detain Falun Gong, and hundreds of male practitioners were held there. This labor camp is most notorious for the "straight jacket" torture device they invented. The central 610 Office promoted this device to all the other forced labor camps in China.

The so-called "straight jacket" is a clothing-like torture device. Made of fine canvas, it is put on the victim from the front and tightened behind the back. The sleeves, about 25 inches longer than the victim's arms, have straps on them. They put the strait jackets on steadfast practitioners, pull their arms behind their backs, and finally cross and tie their arms behind their backs. Then they pull their arms up over their shoulders to the front of their chest, tie up the practitioner's legs and hang them up in the air from the windows. People who suffer this torture quickly sustain broken arms, tendons, shoulders, wrists, and elbows. Those who endure this torture for a long time have completely broken spines, and they die in agonizing pain.

According to the report, there were several practitioners who died from being forced to wear the "straight jackets."

Mr. Yao Yaoyuan was born in 1972, a former staff member in the Military Mechanics Officers' School in Wuhan City. He graduated from the Chinese People's Liberation Army Defense Science College in 1993. He was fired from work in August 2000 because he refused to give up practicing Falun Gong. He was sent back to his hometown of Huxing Village, Niumasi Town, Shaodong County, Hunan Province. The local police illegally arrested him many times. He was sentenced to one year in the Xinkaipu Forced Labor Camp. On February 7, 2002, he was tortured with the "straight jacket." He died of a massive hemorrhage on June 6, 2003.

Recently, relatives of practitioners wrote a public letter to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights, calling for an investigation into the inhuman criminal acts in Baimalong Forced Labor Camp. Thousands of people signed this letter with their real names. This astonished the international community.

Chen Xingtao

Another case is that of Mrs. Chen Xingtao, 39, a practitioner from Guqiao Village, Yanglin Town, Yueyang County, Hunan Province. She was sent to Baimalong Women's Labor Camp on January 31, 2001. She suffered all sorts of torture, which left her paralyzed from the waist down. She died on May 27, 2002.

When the reporter called the hospital hotline at 1:30 a.m., someone picked up the phone right away and replied, "There is someone assigned to this department. Please call at 8:30 in the morning."

Practitioners from all areas, please call this number and also the local labor camps and prison phones. Clarify the truth and eliminate the persecution. Stop the old forces' arrangements from continuing.

Posting date: 5/11/2006
Original article date: 5/10/2006
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Translated on 5/6/2006
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2006/5/2/126668.html