SAN DIEGO—Experts on human rights in China and victims of human rights abuses at the hands of the Chinese regime gathered on Wednesday, May 11, to discuss the practice of organ harvesting in China.
The event, titled “Human Organ Harvesting: Is China’s government killing Falun Gong and other prisoners of conscience for their organs?” was held at the Peace & Justice Theatre at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at University of San Diego (USD), and well attended by some 140 people. Two featured speakers were David Matas, an international human rights lawyer, and the Hon. David Kilgour, former Canadian MP, Queen’s barrister, and former head secretary of state, Asia-Pacific.
Jointly, Kilgour and Matas have been gleaning information on the subject of Chinese organ harvesting since being approached by several Falun Gong practitioners in 2006. Kilgour mentioned that 41,500 organ donors are unaccounted for in the calculations of the number of organs and donors provided by the Chinese Communist Party for the years 2000-2006. They conclude the most likely source for these organs is detained Falun Gong practitioners.