Organ transplant claims rejected

An Australian expert in the human organ trade says there's been a massive drop in the numbers of foreigners coming to China for an organ transplant.

Campbell Fraser, from Griffith University, spoke at the Vatican Summit on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism last week and told chinadaily.com.cn that he had interviewed many patients "who attempted to buy an organ in China but were refused by the Chinese hospitals."

For the first time, Chinese representatives have been invited to the summit to discuss its experience of combating organ commercialism.

China has undertaken a 10-year reform process to reduce dependence on executed inmates as the primary source for organ transplants.

A public organ donation system has been launched in line with international practice, and in 2015 the country announced that the use of organs from executed inmates had ceased.

Using organs from executed inmates became a major source of criticism of China by some individuals or groups, such as Falun Gong. They even accused China of extracting organs from "prisoners of conscience".

"In the days before the summit, the FLG embarked on a campaign of emailing participants," Fraser said. The content of the emails made false allegations against Chinese representatives.

Fraser said that the authors of these emails -- academics, lawyers, doctors, and politicians based primarily in Australia, Canada, USA and Europe – are not "independent" researchers as they claim.

"They have the specific intention of attacking the Chinese government, and have decided to use so-called "organ harvesting" as their main weapon... as they think that it will be difficult to prove that it does not happen," Fraser said.

Fraser has investigated human organ trafficking since 2008 and has personally met over 1000 people involved in the illegal business, including doctors, buyers, sellers and brokers, and consulted several governments, health departments and police organizations.

After conducting his own investigations, he said he has concluded that the FLG claims are fraudulent.

He also believed that the FLG met the criteria of a cult because they believe in one person with supernatural powers and "practitioners" refuse medical treatment for themselves and their children.

He said he was recently invited to both New York and Taipei to meet doctors who explained to him that they have a problem with FLG "practitioners" refusing treatment.

"There was even a case reported to me of a FLG practitioner refusing medical treatment for her young daughter," he said.

When academics have reported things against the FLG, Fraser says they are harassed.

"The FLG harass me because they know that I am a threat to them, because I know what really happens in China," he said. "They are doing all they can to silence me, by trying to stop me attending and presenting at international conferences."

"In August 2016 the FLG tried to stop me speaking at the international transplant conference in Hong Kong. When legal means failed, they attempted to physically stop me from speaking by shouting at me when I started to present. What made this particularly ridiculous was that my presentation was not even specifically about China, it was about Special Interest Groups in general."

China is still implementing major reforms in organ transplantation, and significant progress continues to be made in this transformation process.

Fraser said he hoped "the international transplant community will continue to support our Chinese colleagues in this vital work."