
Chinese Forced Organ Harvesting - U.S. Legislative Proposals
by ACAT
March 1, 2018
My ideas focus primarily on the Chinese government and the U.S. medical profession. While it is tempting to prohibit ‘transplant tourism’, it would be counterproductive from a messaging standpoint to punish the very sick people who need transplants.
Chinese Government – Until China: 1) allows a credible, transparent, and independent investigation into organ transplant abuses; 2) makes full disclosure of historical and current hospital-level transplant data; 3) allows independent verification of its voluntary transplant system (cf. S.Res. 220 - 2017); and 4) publishes annual statistics relating to its voluntary system, Congress should enact legislation to:
U.S. Medical Profession
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by ACAT
March 1, 2018
My ideas focus primarily on the Chinese government and the U.S. medical profession. While it is tempting to prohibit ‘transplant tourism’, it would be counterproductive from a messaging standpoint to punish the very sick people who need transplants.
Chinese Government – Until China: 1) allows a credible, transparent, and independent investigation into organ transplant abuses; 2) makes full disclosure of historical and current hospital-level transplant data; 3) allows independent verification of its voluntary transplant system (cf. S.Res. 220 - 2017); and 4) publishes annual statistics relating to its voluntary system, Congress should enact legislation to:
- Impose tariffs on Chinese goods in the amount of $9 billion annually, the estimated size of China’s forced organ harvesting industry. Call it the “organ tax”. If the profit is taken out of this industry, this would incentivize China to stop transplant abuse. Congress should call on all other countries to do the same. Call it treble damages or disgorgement of profits.
- Impose economic sanctions like those for human rights violations in countries of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act
- Seize any homes or other assets in the U.S. belonging to Chinese government officials or medical professionals reasonably believed to be involved in organ transplantation without donor consent in China. (cf. British proposal)
- Expand the Trump administration’s interagency probe into Chinese covert influence in the U.S. to include an examination of China’s efforts to counter criticism of its organ transplant practices and abuses. The examination should include, but not be limited to: efforts to sway public opinion; the mobilization of student and diaspora groups; the use of Chinese-owned or Chinese–controlled media in the U.S. in this regard; and the efforts, if any, of Confucius Institutes on U.S. college campuses to whitewash transplant abuses in China.
- Instruct the FCC to pull the licenses of all Chinese-owned or Chinese-controlled broadcast outlets as not compatible with the public interest. In the alternative, require the outlets to register as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), as Russian-directed RT was recently made to do.
The nation’s airwaves, as a scarce resource, are impressed with a public trust.Licensees must operate as worthy public fiduciaries of that trust.“Congress has from time to time enacted its own requirements regarding what constitutes the public interest in broadcasting.”(Brookings Institution). Congress could easily declare it is not in the public interest to give a country that engages in industrial-scale forced organ harvesting access to U.S. media markets. (See the proposed Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act which would designate large-scale and deliberate atrocity crimes against civilians and targeted groups as a core national security interest.) Examples of Chinese media in the U.S. include CGTN [China Global Television Network – connected to state-run CCTV (Channel 30.3 aired by MHz Networks in the Washington, D.C. area] and WCRW – 1290 AM in D.C. From Wikipedia: “On November 2, 2015, the FCC announced it would investigate allegations that WCRW is controlled by China Radio International (CRI), the Chinese state broadcaster.[9] Reuters reported that 60 percent of the station's airtime is leased by a subsidiary of CRI.[10]“
- Step up enforcement of 8 USC 1182f (“Denial of entry into United States of Chinese and other nationals engaged in coerced organ or bodily tissue transplantation”) by requiring the State Department to:
- report annually to Congress on the implementation of 8 U.S.C. 1182f (see last item H.Res. 343 – 2016)
- inform the appropriate Congressional Committees before any visa is granted on 1182f grounds for “believing that the foreign national has discontinued his or her involvement with, and support for, such practices.”
- Restrict U.S. involvement in the 2022 Winter Olympics in China with respect to:
- The participation of U.S. athletes (cf. 1980 Olympics boycott to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan)
- Monetary assistance
- technical assistance
- The involvement of U.S. media outlets
- The UN should NOT be in charge of the independent investigation referenced above. China controls a number of offices and agencies at the UN.
- The investigators should be given unfettered access to donor and patient files and have plenary power to go anywhere inside China, call unannounced surprise inspections of any facility, and meet confidentially with any Chinese individuals or groups.
- An independent investigation is more important than ever, now that China is muddying the waters on this issue with an aggressive public relations campaign.
U.S. Medical Profession
- Knowing or Negligent Participation - penalize doctors, hospitals, and other medical professionals who facilitate or refer patients for organ transplant in China, when the source of the organs is involuntary or unknown. Penalties should include loss of medical or operating license, and disqualification from participating in government health programs. (cf. Taiwan)
- Compulsory reporting of transplant tourism - require doctors, hospitals, and other medical professionals to report to the government anonymized information or aggregate data about patients who seeks transplant aftercare. Healthcare providers are already accustomed to similar reporting in cases of gunshot wounds and child abuse. Such report shall include the name of the country where the transplant took place, the hospital or other facility performing the transplant, the names of the medical professionals involved, and the organ(s) the patient sought (cf. Taiwan, plus France per David Matas). Impose fines for non-reporting. The government shall report statistics annually. Fallback: set up voluntary reporting of transplant tourism.
- Training - prohibit U.S. medical professionals from training Chinese medical professionals in transplant techniques. (cf. Italy)
- No medical partnerships - prohibit U.S. educational institutions and professionals from cooperating with Chinese medical entities and professionals with regard to any aspect of transplantation unless the U.S. party can document that any organs involved or referenced are voluntarily acquired. Forms of cooperation include, but are not limited to: consulting on clinical practice techniques, collaborating on research, academic exchanges, co-authoring papers, putting on conferences or seminars, and other relationships.
- Prohibit U.S. medical schools from accepting any further students from China in degree programs or seminars
- Forbid sales of transplant drugs to China (assuming this is occurring). Penalties to include closing manufacturing plants, confiscating drug inventories, disgorgement of profits (or impose penalties of three times profits made), and disqualification from government programs, subsidies, and contracts. (cf. suggestions of German researcher Arne Schwarz). China makes at least some of its own immunosuppressants, so all knowledge transfers from U.S. pharmaceutical companies to China regarding these types of drugs should also be prohibited. Also, there should be no clinical trials of U.S. immunosuppressant drugs in China until China allows the investigation described above.
- The FDA should reject any application for approval of any drug related to transplantation that has undergone clinical trials in China or is based on research on tissue in China, unless there is rigorous assurance and documentation that all organs or human tissues involved were ethically sourced. Congress should ask for a report from the FDA on whether any drugs have ever been rejected on this basis. As a starting point, this item could be an inquiry to the FDA from a member of Congressman who sits on the FDA oversight committee. It could be done by a staffer who is interested in doing something, but who says legislation is unrealistic.
- No shipping of organs or other human tissue from China to the U.S. under pain of civil penalties and forfeiture, as in a 2010 bill to prohibit importation of plastinated human remains from China. Major organs can’t be shipped long distances at present, but technology is being developed that could make it possible in the future. The situation may be further along with respect to skin and corneas. In any event, it makes sense to get out ahead of what will inevitably become a problem.
- Congress should ask for a report on information developed from the following question on the U.S. immigrant visa application form at page 20: "Have you ever been directly involved in the coercive transplantation of human organs or bodily tissue?"
- U.S. Surgeon General to undertake a public awareness campaign on the issue - ‘the organ you get in China will likely be extracted from a live donor (who dies in the process) without consent.
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- More Proposals - “US companies should be prohibited from undertaking organ transplant-related clinical research activity or benefitting from the sale of equipment or pharmaceuticals if the source of the organs is from executed prisoners or commercial organ donation.” More suggestions in congressional testimony of UCLA Professor of Medicine Gabriel Danovitch here.
- U.S. companies involved in Chinese efforts in developing, testing, or selling anti-rejection drugs should be required to document they follow the WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue, and Organ Transplantation.
- In the past, companies such as Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, and Isotechnica have stopped drug trials in China or adopted rigorous internal guidelines before proceeding.
- U.S. companies involved in Chinese efforts in developing, testing, or selling anti-rejection drugs should be required to document they follow the WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue, and Organ Transplantation.