WASHINGTON—After presiding over an industry of organ transplantation that researchers said has led to a vast death toll of prisoners of conscience, China’s Communist Party has now promised reform. No one has been punished, and no admission of wrongdoing has been made—in fact, the perpetrators are now in charge of the reform process. Question: Do you believe them?
The problem goes to the heart of the disconnect between researchers of forced organ harvesting in China and the international transplantation establishment. A congressional hearing on June 23 saw the gap narrow regarding what has happened in China, but remain on the prospects for reform, as hard data clashes against implacable optimism.
Sitting at the same hearing table were Dr. Francis L. Delmonico, former president of The Transplantation Society (TTS), and David Matas and Ethan Gutmann, co-authors (with David Kilgour) of a new, carefully researched report that the authors said documents the systematic genocide of imprisoned prisoners of conscience. Dr. Charles Lee, a spokesman for a human rights research NGO, also spoke.
As one of the key brokers between the international transplant establishment and Chinese officialdom, Delmonico had been invited to testify before the joint subcommittee hearing, chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), both outspoken critics of rights abuses in China. Rohrabacher acknowledged to Delmonico, “You knew you'd be put in the hot seat.”
Delmonico struck a sober tone about abuses in China. He conceded that neither he nor TTS could verify that transplant abuse in China had ceased. He noted several times that he had no insight whatsoever into the prolific and secretive military hospitals—even from a Potemkin Village tour—where most of the forced organ harvesting takes place. He never demurred about the evidence of mass organ harvesting (called “Nazi-like” by Smith) presented by those flanking him.
