Re: Organ harvesting editorial was wrong, May 28.

It appears inappropriate for Zuo Wenxing of the Chinese Embassy to accuse the Citizen in its editorial of being "irresponsible and misleading." The editorial did not "accuse China" but quoted Doctors Against Organ Harvesting.

Our medical organization was alerted by various sources that an unprecedented form of live organ harvesting is taking place in China. Readers can visit our website doctorsagainstorganharvesting.org. Among other sources, we also referred to the report of David Kilgour and David Matas at the website organharvestinvestigation.net. Despite the fact that China denied entry to these two reputable lawyers, they were able to compile a large number of proofs. The evidence is based on reproducible data that followed standard procedures in legal investigation. Their report is a remarkable source. We recommend everyone read it before spreading rumours about it.

According to the Chinese newspaper Tsing Dao Daily, Huang Jiefu, deputy minister of health, acknowledged in November 2005 that 95 per cent of the transplant organs come from executed prisoners. This number appears realistic in a country where its citizens are traditionally reluctant to donate organs and where a lack of a public organ donation program makes it implausible how suitable organs can be found within one to four weeks for transplantation. The Transplantation Society (TTS), the World Medical Association and other medical organizations state that prisoners in custody are not in a position to give consent freely. Therefore we conclude denying any organ retrieval "without donor consent" in China is misleading. We would rather state that most of the organs used for transplantation in China are harvested without consent.

The claim that "China has all along abided by the relevant guiding principles of the WHO" appears vague. What is relevant, what is not? In the Principles of Medical Ethics, adopted by WHO in 1982, doctors are reminded not to adversely affect prisoners or detainees. According to our data these Principles of Medical Ethics are violated in China. It is particularly misleading given the fact that medical doctors are involved in killing innocent people for harvesting their organs in Chinese detention camps.

We would like to emphasize that intimidating a newspaper by claiming three times that the journalistic research is based on "rumours" is not the way to claim what is true. The evidence indicates beyond doubt, and beyond the point of being called "rumour" that organs are particularly harvested from Falun Gong practitioners.

Torsten Trey, MD

Washington, D.C.

Spokesman for Doctors

Against Organ Harvesting

© The Ottawa Citizen 2007