Chinese Woman Dies Suddenly While in Custody, ‘Organs Extracted,’ Says Report

A 64-year-old Chinese woman died suddenly while in custody, and her internal organs were extracted by Chinese communist authorities, according to a report.

Ma Guilan was arrested on July 4 near Qinhuangdao City in Hebei Province and was sent to a detention center for speaking to people about Falun Gong, according to Minghui, a website dedicated to exposing the persecution of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as a Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice based on meditative exercises and moral teachings centered on three principles: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, according to its website. But in China, it’s been subjected to brutal persecution since July 1999, with widespread reports of torture, brainwashing, forced labor, extrajudicial killings, and organ harvesting in labor camps throughout the country.

Two months after she was arrested, Ma reportedly fell ill and was taken to the Qinhuangdao Police Hospital. Two hours later, she was dead.

“Several government agents with unknown identities came to the hospital, cut open her abdomen and removed her internal organs for some alleged examinations,“ Minghui reported, citing state insiders. ”It wasn’t clear where they were taking her organs.”

An actors' re-enactment of organ harvesting in China on Falun Gong practitioners, during a rally calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, in Ottawa, Canada, in 2008. (The Epoch Times)

Ma’s family didn’t provide any information to Minghui, fearing retaliation from the Chinese Communist Party. It’s not clear if her family knew about Ma’s organs having been taken.

A month before Ma’s death, two other detainees also died under suspicious conditions. According to Minghui, they were not Falun Gong adherents.

“Some local Falun Gong practitioners suspect that the three suspicious deaths may have had something to do with China’s state-sanctioned organ harvesting, especially with Ms. Ma’s organs confirmed to have been removed,” said the report. “Human rights researchers have concluded that most of the organs came from living, non-consenting Falun Gong practitioners, who have been vulnerably subjected to all kinds of inhumane tortures after being captured.”

After Ma’s death, the prison fired some of its staff and brought in new personnel, according to Minghui.

Organ Harvesting in China

Falun Gong practitioners are targeted by the Chinese regime for their organs, which are then sold for profit.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) recently highlighted the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) campaign of organ harvesting.

“The Chinese government and Communist Party’s ongoing efforts to eradicate Falun Gong practice is a black mark on recent Chinese history. The CCP’s need to control even the consciences of the Chinese people has led to horrific human rights abuses, torture, arbitrary detention, and organ harvesting,” said Smith on Dec. 3.

In the United Kingdom, a tribunal said it’s examining evidence that shows the regime targeting prisoners of conscience.

In a press briefing ahead of the tribunal, the executive director of the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), Susie Hughes, said there has been an increase in organ transplants that has coincided with the persecution of Falun Gong.

“During the 2000s, analysis of various sources of emerging evidence led to the conclusion that people who practiced Falun Gong were being killed to provide the organs fueling China’s transplant boom,” she said, according to a Dec. 9. report.

David Matas gives evidence at the people's tribunal on Dec. 8 in De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, Holborn. (Justin Palmer)

Human rights lawyer David Matas, who has long been highlighting organ harvesting by the regime, suggested there has been a significant number of doctors involved in the grisly practice.

“It’s dispiriting to see the number of doctors involved. This, of course, was the Nazi experience, there was a lot of medical abuse in the Nazi period,” said Matas.

Several Chinese witnesses testified in front of the panel, saying they fled persecution in China. All of them said they were detained for practicing Falun Gong, and described torture and other forms of abuse while detained.