Tribunal reports that China is killing prisoners to harvest their organs

An independent tribunal investigating forced organ harvesting from prisoners in Chinese detention centers has revealed that officials are reportedly killing prisoners to harvest organs.

What are the details?

The tribunal released the findings of its investigation on Monday, concluding that "forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale, [and] the tribunal has had no evidence that the significant infrastructure associated with China's transplantation industry has been dismantled and absent a satisfactory explanation as to the source of readily available organs concludes that forced organ harvesting continues till today."

Forbes reported that "some of the organ extractions were said to have been conducted on live victims who were killed during their procedures."

U.S. News and World report that victims of such alleged treatments often include prisoners, "including members of religious minorities." The outlet added that investigators spent 12 months "collecting evidence, work that included questioning more than 50 witnesses, experts, investigators and analysts in public hearings held in April and in December 2018."

The tribunal also evaluated written submissions, investigative reports, and academic papers.

A 2018 statement on the investigation reported that "the tribunal's members are certain — unanimously, and sure beyond a reasonable doubt — that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of victims."

In 2014, the Chinese government insisted that the procedure would stop.

The tribunal's chair, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, said "there is no evidence of the practice [of prisoner organ harvesting] having been stopped and the tribunal is satisfied that it is continuing."

He added, "[V]ery many people have died indescribably hideous deaths for no reason, that more may suffer in similar ways, and that all of us live on a planet where extreme wickedness may be found in the power of those, for the time being, running a country with one of the oldest civilizations known to modern man."

What are the organs worth?

Additional reports found that organs in China are reportedly worth billions of dollars, and that the amount of transplants in China on an annual basis are estimated to be between 60,000 and 100,000.

London's Chinese Embassy said that the reports are nothing more than "rumors."

In a statement, the embassy said that the "government always follows the World Health Organization's guiding principles on human organ transplant, and has strengthened its management on organ transplant in recent years."

"On 21 March 2007, the Chinese state council enacted the regulation on human organ transplant, providing that human organ donation must be done voluntarily and gratis," the statement explained. "We hope that the British people will not be misled by rumors."