(Clearwisdom.net) On October 24, the Liberty Times reported that it is now very common for Taiwan residents to go to Mainland China for organ transplants and that many of these stories had tragic endings. Chinese doctors even come to Taiwan to perform patient evaluation for potential transplant operations in China. Last March, Zhu Zhijun, director of the Organ Transplant Center (also known as the No.1 Tianjin Central Hospital), came to Taiwan to evaluate the medical records of patients who are planning to go to China for liver transplants.

On the same day, Eastern News reported that under international pressure, China finally enacted a regulation to ban the organ trade; however, the newspaper reminded the public that organ trafficking in China is still very rampant despite the regulation. According to international reports, such organs often come from executed prisoners or Falun Gong practitioners. This practice is very controversial as it raises moral and human rights concerns.

The Liberty Times said that the Tianjin No.1 Central Hospital, also known as the Oriental Organ Transplant Center, claims to be the largest liver transplant center in Asia. Reportedly, it performs 600 to 700 liver transplants each year. According to an investigation performed by Falun Gong supporters, however, the center is suspected of being involved in using organs from detained Falun Gong practitioners.

Quoting Dr. Huang Shiwei from Chiayi City, the Liberty Times reported that Dr. Lin Minzhuan from Guangzhou also comes to Taiwan annually to meet patients who need or had kidney transplants.

Reportedly, more than 50 patients who had liver transplants performed at the Tianjin No. 1 Central Hospital have been invited to the hospital to participate in a patient forum. All of their expenses will be paid by the hospital.

On October 30, the Liberty Times published another article which reported that the Taiwanese Mainland Affairs Council issued a new regulation on October 29 to restrict visits of Chinese transplant doctors in order to prevent those doctors from coming to Taiwan to solicit patients.

Regarding the fact that Zhu Zhizhun, director of the Oriental Organ Transplant Center, came to Taiwan to solicit organ transplant patients, Legislative Council Member Ms. Tian Chiu-Jin, human rights activists, and members from the Mainland Affairs Council, Bureau of Health, Department of Justice and Immigration Agency held a press conference at the Legislative Council on October 29 urging the Taiwanese Government to investigate cases in which Taiwan physicians illegally solicited organ transplant patients for the Mainland.

"Have those executed prisoners in China really committed unpardonable crimes? Or was the killing done because someone needed organs?" Ms. Tian asked. She said: "The practice of using organs from executed prisoners has been a long time human rights issue. The recently allegation of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners is even more appalling. International human rights groups have in succession condemned the atrocities. Ironically, the Oriental Organ Transplant Center is notorious for its involvement in the alleged atrocities."

Renowned human rights attorney Theresa Chu said: "According to a number of investigations, many detainees in China are subjected to blood tests and the data was saved in a special database. Once a detainee is found to match to a buyer, his/her name will be changed to the name of a death-roll prisoner and the detainee will be executed for organs. What is even more appalling, according to independent Canadian investigators, from 2000 to 2005, 41,500 organs were transplanted without identified sources. After evaluating all the collected evidence, the investigators concluded that these organs likely came from detained Falun Gong practitioners."

At the press conference, Legislative Council Member Tian Chiu-Jin said that the CCP has cremated Falun Gong practitioners' bodies after organ harvesting in order to destroy the evidence of their crimes. Ms. Tian said: "During World War II, no one initially believed the allegation of the Holocaust were true. Likewise, many people don't want to believe that the CCP is arbitrarily killing innocent Falun Gong practitioners. I hope that such a tragedy will not happen again. The Taiwanese people should not remain indifferent to these atrocities."

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/10/30/165589.html