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发帖数: 372 | 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38899942
Vatican defends China invite to organ trafficking summit
7 February 2017
From the section Asia
AP
Image caption
China's Huang Jeifu told the summit China was making progress in ending
organ harvesting
The Vatican has defended its decision to invite China to a conference on
organ trafficking despite its record of using executed inmates as organ
donors.
The head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) admitted he did not
know whether the practice was continuing but said he hoped to encourage
change.
Human rights groups say China is still using executed prisoners as a source
of organ transplants.
Beijing says forced organ harvesting ended in 2015.
But the group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) said China's
participation was compromising the conference and the PAS should reject its
claim as no independent inspection had taken place.
AP
Image caption
Falun Gong followers say detainees are being killed for their organs
"Without accountability, there is no reason to trust the government of China
's claim that forced organ harvesting of prisoners has come to an end," said
Dr Torsten Trey.
'Mass killing of innocents'
Those killed so their organs can be sold for transplant mainly include
members of the Falun Gong, an exercise-based spiritual movement that became
popular before being banned as a cult in 1999, but also include Christians,
ethnic Tibetans and Uighurs and other people who have been imprisoned for
their beliefs, campaigners say.
China has a shortage of donors and a big black market in organs.
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'We will remove your kidney, and you will receive 300,000 rupees'
DAFOH wants Beijing to prove publicly that a 1980s law allowing organ
harvesting has been abolished.
The group's criticism follows a report last year by the International
Coalition to End Organ Pillaging in China (EOP), which said the Chinese
Communist Party was behind the mass killing of innocent prisoners.
AP
Image caption
Mr Sorondo said he did not know if illegal organ tranplants were continuing
in China
The US House of Representatives has condemned forced organ harvesting and
called for its end.
China's controversial reformer
However the director of China's transplant programme insisted progress was
being made despite some violations taking place.
"In my governmental organisation there is zero tolerance," Dr Huang Jeifu
said.
"However, China is a big country, with 1.3 billion people, so sure,
definitely, there is some violation of the law. If there is some violation
of the law it will be severely punished."
GETTY IMAGES
Image caption
China outlawed Falun Gong in 1999 and began a crackdown on followers
Correspondents say Dr Huang is a controversial figure, credited by some with
reforming a notoriously corrupt system but accused by others of being
complicit in allowing it to continue.
The Vatican conference is a response to Pope Francis's efforts to crack down
on trafficking in humans and organs.
Delegates have been told how desperate patients flock to countries where
regulations are lax and organs can be cheaply bought, such as Egypt, India
and Mexico, for everything from kidneys to corneas.
A shortage of transplant organs is fuelling a lucrative black market in poor
countries
The conference aims to declare organ trafficking a crime against humanity.
It is taking place against a backdrop of warming ties between China and the
Vatican.
They are believed to be close to a historic agreement governing the
selection of bishops for 10m Chinese Roman Catholics. |
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