http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/2584168
葛特曼西敏寺谈中国“器官活摘” 再轰柯文哲 (附谈话全文)
2018-10-18 07:50
〔即时新闻/综合报导〕《屠杀》作者伊森‧葛特曼(Ethan Gutmann)于16日在英国西
敏寺的“中国强摘器官的第三次发布会”发表谈话,他直指台北市长柯文哲在2005年就知
道中国有医院在活摘法轮功学员的器官,他感叹:“书里的内容永远不会改变,但我对柯
文哲的观感已经彻底改变了”。
葛特曼在谈话中表示,中国每年有高达60,000到100,000件器官移植,且来源让人怀疑,
他说自己希望能准确陈述历史,而促成今日器官活摘现状的重要因素就是叶克膜(ECMO)
的技术,还有医师柯文哲。
葛特曼指出,柯文哲曾参与2008年无锡市医院举办的叶克膜研讨会,而这场研讨会有许多
人都有活摘器官嫌疑。他分析柯文哲的身分分别是台湾“器官旅客”前往中国的中间人、
美敦力叶克膜的推销员、教导中国使用叶克膜的教师。
葛特曼直指台湾是共犯结构的一部分,西方、日本、韩国医疗界,以及美敦力、国际器官
移植协会、梵蒂冈、美国国会、英国国会都在密切观望台湾,他认为,台湾这次是决定未
来的关键。
葛特曼谈话全文(蝴蝶兰文创创办人吴祥辉提供):
谢谢,我今天会讲到台湾,但我想先提到四点不可否认的事实。
1. 我们在2016年发布的报告《血腥的器官摘取/大屠杀:更新版》显示,中国绝不只像北
京宣称的每年进行10,000至15,000次的器官移植,而是高达60,000到100,000件。中国政
府在器官移植议题上的发言人黄洁夫最近也基本承认了这个数量,他说中国在几年内就会
达到每年50,000件器官移植的数量,这些器官都哪里来的?
2. 在过去一年中,北京政府从超过1,500万维吾尔族人身上抽取了血液样本,包含新疆的
每个男人、女人、小孩。
3. 在当下,超过一百万维吾尔族人被关在所谓“再教育营”中。
4. 中共还在新疆建立9个火葬场,第一个刚刚在乌鲁木齐开始营运,光是那一个就驻扎了
50名保安人员。
我不能阻止中共,就像当年在爱尔兰西岸旁观的僧人无法停止维京人横扫欧洲文明一样,
但我的工作是要把历史准确的陈述出来。今天我要讲一个很关键的重点,这是我觉得促成
了今天器官活摘现状的重要因素。
那就是叫做叶克膜(ECMO)的技术,还有一个叫做柯文哲的医生,就是这张照片右边数来
第三人,这是在2008年无锡市医院举办的叶克膜研讨会上拍摄的照片。柯医师现在已经成
了台北市的市长,柯医师从最早2000年就开始涉及到中国的叶克膜发展。
柯文哲在2008年的一次访谈中告诉我,他最早在2005年就亲自知道,中国至少有一间医院
在活摘法轮功学员的器官。这场访谈现在被记录在我的书《屠杀》里,而且我们双方当年
都同意了我出版的内容。
书里的内容永远不会改变,但我对柯文哲的观感已经彻底改变了。
在我最近出发到台湾推广我的书中译本之前,我发现柯文哲在2008年曾经参与了那场叶克
膜研讨会,而且就在我们访谈进行的三个月前。那张研讨会的合照让我看了想忘都忘不掉
,我也不会忘记研讨会的会议行程表,显示柯参与其中。
许多在台湾研究这个议题的人都比我更有能力进一步调查这场叶克膜研讨会,事实上法轮
功的研究者已经超越了我自己收集到这个研讨会的资料。但光就我在2016年与大卫·麦塔
斯和大卫·乔高一同撰写出版的报告,我可以讲讲这场研讨会上出现的医院和医生。
我们在这里把每个怀疑曾涉嫌对政治和宗教良心犯进行器官活摘的个人和医院都用红体字
标注起来,尽管我们对于柯文哲在中国究竟做了什么还有疑虑,我们也先把他的名子改成
红色。柯文哲在当天中午12点进行了讲座。
可以看出,在这场研讨会演讲的许多人都有活摘器官嫌疑
‧ 我们在2016年的更新报告中特别观察了无锡市人民医院,该院不只获得独特的肺移植
许可,还进行其他八种移植手术,肾脏、肝脏、心脏、胰脏、角膜、干细胞、骨髓、和人
工血管。因为无锡市人民医院宣称他们进行超过全中国一半数量的肺移植手术,我们怀疑
法轮功学员是肺来源之一。
‧ 陈忠华从2000年1月到2006年8月对65个“器官捐赠者”进行了多个器官同时移除的手
术。在2006年,陈忠华还是武汉同济医院器官移植研究所的所长的时候,海外的调查人员
打电话向医院询问他们是否可以取得法轮功学员器官的移植时,该医院的肾脏移植部门回
覆“没问题啊,当你准备好时,到我们医院来跟我们进一步讨论”。
‧ 这是刘德若,中日友好医院的外科主任医师,在2008年前进行过7次的肺移植手术,都
是从脑死的所谓“器官捐赠者”身上取得,通常那就意味着被器官活摘的受害者。中日友
好医院是日本“器官旅客”常来接受移植的热门医院。
‧ 接下来是陈静瑜,号称“中国肺移植手术第一人”,2002年到2011年间从“捐赠者”
身上取出了129个肺脏。到2014年为止,陈静瑜每天平均做五个肺移植手术,他向10个城
市和省分的30间医院教导灌注保存器官的专业技术。陈静瑜应该就是照片右边那位,而柯
文哲就在左边。
‧ 北京阜外医院,这个医院进行中国最多的心脏移植,宋云虎是主任医师
‧ 接下来是上海市胸科医院的高成新,进行了中国最多的双肺移植手术。该院的肺内科
主任韩宝惠韩宝惠,曾向当局告密自己的同学赵斌修炼法轮功。赵斌在2012年4月被捕,
2013年10月19日在上海的监狱被摧残致死。
‧ 福建医科大学附属协和医院副院长陈良万,他破了16个“中国第一”纪录,从111个脑
死的“捐赠者”取出心脏,平均寿命25岁,都没有心脏疾病,热缺血时间为0-15分钟,这
又是另一项纪录,说明了是事先计画好了的器官活摘。
‧ 王春生,上海中山医院的心脏外科主任。从2000到2011年,王从298名“捐赠者”身上
取出心脏,平均寿命27岁,没有心脏疾病历史。2007年以来,他从取出了238个心脏。
‧ 下面是对中山医院肝调查的电话录音:
调查员:要等多久呀?
医生:来了一个礼拜左右就可以做了。
调查员:有没有这种炼法轮功的这种提供的,这种提供的说是很好……
医生:我们这儿的都是这种
“所有捐献肝都是直接从源头获取的。 因为我们自己进行提取,并且能够获得捐赠器官
的原始信息,我们就能确定捐献者的肝脏是否可以使用… 我们不关心它是否来自法轮功
学员。我们不参与政治。作为医生,我们只关心捐赠的肝脏,关心它是否符合移植的要求
。如果它符合要求,我们不关心它来自谁。”
‧ 这是孟旭,北京心脏移植中心的创始人,从1992年到2006年他参与了摘除51个“器官
捐赠者”的心脏,都是男性,年龄21-43岁,没有心脏疾病历史,热缺血时间为3-8分钟。
孟旭独自完成了将近10,000次手术,每年都有超过800次。
因为时间缘故,我在这里要跳过一些内容。
‧ 最后一个是天津市第一中心医院,估计每年有5000件器官移植,十几年来几乎占据官
方统计全国移植数量的一半。过半数在这里接受器官移植的是外国人。
这个研讨会的重点是什么?为什么这些人会来参加呢?当然是为了叶克膜而来。柯文哲是
为了推销美敦力的叶克膜机器而到中国大陆。
叶克膜可以用来作为活摘器官的工具,它可以将肺脏或心脏的寿命延长最长达8小时,如
同柯所说的,叶克膜可以拯救生命
的确,叶克膜在台湾、美国、英国、日本、澳洲都发挥了拯救生命的角色,但在中国,因
为有着几乎无数的宗教和政治良心犯,把叶克膜带进中国的结果是截然不同的。
参加这个叶克膜研讨会的人是为了想拯救人命而来吗?我想他们应该是因为想要赚钱而来
的。从研讨会的角度来看,柯文哲的参与是有价值的,至少到2008年为止,柯对于中国大
陆器官移植产业的可利用处有三点:
1. 扮演一个中间人的角色,让台湾较为有钱的“器官旅客”前往中国。
2. 扮演一个推销员的角色,推销美敦力的叶克膜器材到中国大陆。
3. 扮演一个教师的角色,教导中国如何使用叶克膜技术。
如果你在对法轮功学员、维吾尔人、或西藏人进行器官活摘,你可以利用叶克膜技术,来
增加活摘一个人器官可以得到的利润。这张就是器官的价格表,而这张照片就是五名法轮
功的难民。
所有这张照片里的女子都被关进劳改营过,她们全都被刑求过。在劳改营中她们其中一人
遭受了性侵害,而最左边这名女士京田(音译)还被检验过器官。如果她在没有叶克膜的
情况下被器官活摘了,而器官在医院被配给外国来的器官移植旅客,她的器官总价值会是
大约$200,000美元,如果加上眼角膜或许可以值$200,000美元,姑且估算为$225,000美元
好了。
如果利用叶克膜呢?京田身上的器官价值会增加到$680,000美元,大概增加了两倍。我认
为参加那个2008年叶克膜研讨会的人,都非常清楚这个数字代表什么。
简单说,无论最初把叶克膜引进中国的用意为何,它所带来的结果就是让中国有更多杀害
法轮功学员、维吾尔人、西藏人的邪恶动机。我们不知道柯文哲对于中国的叶克膜技术到
底帮助了多少,但我毫无疑问肯定把叶克膜引进中国造成了更多无辜的人被杀害。我也毫
无疑问肯定叶克膜导致中国器官移植产业的急速发展,还有现在在新疆发生的巨大的人权
危机。
但讲这些对台湾公平吗?柯医生现在是受人欢迎的台北市市长,他还在竞选连任,台湾应
该质疑柯过往在这个“地狱研讨会”中究竟做了什么吗?我想说的是,我作为一个作者,
还有做为“全球制止中国器官强摘联盟”(ETAC)的发起人之一,我必须问一些问题。
全球制止中国器官强摘联盟里面,一向最有远见、最冷静、而又最清楚的专家是大卫·麦
塔斯。当一些器官移植的病患开始提醒我们,说我们的研究被一些反疫苗接踵的阴谋论制
造者滥用来作为假证据时,我当时提议联盟可以开始鼓励自愿的器官捐赠注册,大卫·麦
塔斯则马上制止我,他说“不要超越我们最开始的任务初衷”。现在想起来他是对的,我
们的联盟若是开始涉及其他的任务便会翻散注意力,而我们最主要的任务还是要在中国拯
救生命。
大卫·麦塔斯还将中国对于政治犯和宗教良心犯的器官活摘比喻为一种“病毒”,也就是
说这种“病毒”并不会影响中国国内,而是会散布到全球各地的医界。
想想看梵谛冈举办的有关非法人口走私的论坛,中国的器官移植官员不但前往与会,还被
论坛当作是全世界器官移植的典范。
可以想想看国际器官移植协会如何频繁的高调造访中国,他们的成员还将法轮功描述为“
邪教”,这说法让中共官方媒体大为吹捧。
可以想想看黄洁夫如何夸耀中国的器官移植系统,将它当成是奖励支持中国一带一路国家
的礼物。
所以如果全球制止中国器官强摘联盟有另一个任务,而不会沦于肤浅的像是常看到在
T-shirt上“拯救鲸鱼”或“拯救西藏”的口号,那就是“历史是重要的”
大规模屠杀、或者称“冷血大屠杀”会永久性的改变一个社会的结构,当大规模屠杀普遍
变成一个解决问题或掩盖政治不正确罪行的方法时,它不只影响受害者、让他们的家庭受
到世代的创伤,也会影响加害者的那个群体。我这里叙述的是过去二十年中国器官活摘的
真相,而这个历史的真相必须被揭露出来,我们没有其他的选择,我们必须持续揭穿那些
主动在掩盖这段历史的人。
两周前,我很惊讶地看到台湾的卫生部长突然对台湾人前往中国大陆接受器官移植的现象
提供更为透明化的资讯,并且承诺将会以更严厉的惩罚来约束那些继续违背台湾器官移植
法规的人。我在台北也与许多调查这方面议题最为厉害的专业人士促膝长谈。
他们调查的重点是什么?我们可以用一个字来总结,那就受“共犯结构”,现在在台湾关
心这个议题的人可能只是少数人,但台湾的确有许多人会希望终止台湾与中国医界挂钩的
共犯结构,而他们开始了一系列的深入调查。叶克膜只是这个共犯结构谜团的一部分,台
湾有好几个人,涉及台湾多家医院、跨级不同的政党,他们都是可能被揭发的共犯,我在
这里就不提他们名子了。
这是我们要面对的黑暗,这也是台湾社会当前面对的揭露黑暗前必然的恐惧。
你们为了逃避这种揭露黑暗的恐惧,当然可以很容易地针对我、攻击我,甚至跑去骚扰我
15岁儿子的Instagram帐号,或是去威胁台湾的法轮功学员,或攻击帮我出书的出版者,
你们甚至把整个事件形容是“政治打手”,或说什么“没有证据”。
事实上全世界的人权组织多年来都是抱持那样的态度,直到后来真相水落石出才全面改变
。在经过那些国会听证会、各家媒体报导之后,美国国会都说我们的报告“太有一贯性和
说服力”,全球各地的专业人士也都以他们的名声替我们背书,支持反强摘器官医生组织
和全球制止中国器官强摘联盟。正是因为证据确凿,人权组织发现他们若要继续否认器官
活摘这件事会太过丢脸。但他们仍然没有大声的承认整件事是“血腥屠杀”,那些希望继
续留在中国进行报导的国际记者也没有高调采访这件事,因为他们那么多年来不承认此事
的做法正是“共犯结构”的一种。
所以是的,台湾是共犯结构的一部分,而这种共犯结构正是为什么中共可以继续在世人关
注下持续犯下反人类罪而不需担心后果。西方世界对于中共暴行的软弱反应对于我们的未
来都会有可怕的影响。
这就是为什么全世界现在都把焦点放在台湾因为西方、日本、韩国的医疗界都在观望台湾
,无论他们是否已是共犯结构的一环。美敦力、国际器官移植协会、梵谛冈也、美国国会
、英国国会都在密切观望。台湾这么小一个国家竟然有这么大的影响力和权力,这次台湾
真的变成了决定未来的关键。
我本人因为此事受到许多攻击,我也毫无惧怕地反击回去,但我尊重台湾的自由媒体环境
和民主。政治就像是肢体格斗一样,媒体的新闻热度可能只是以6小时为单位而不是24小
时,但不可否认的是这个事件的力道是无法抵挡的。我推测台湾会继续在这件事情上挖掘
出真相,我也支持台湾成为全球制止中国器官强摘联盟未来进行器官活摘调查的重要根据
地。
我在台湾时看到新闻报导,中共因为世界开始关注它把一百万维吾尔族人关在新疆集中营
里,而开始将300,000维吾尔族人强行移到别的地方,我们不知道他们被移到新的地方是
否有可能就是器官活摘的设施和医院。这目前还是臆测,但我们可以看出台湾对此事的反
应有可能会影响如此多的维吾尔族男人、女人、小孩的未来,决定他们的生死。
所以如果台湾在听我的证词,台北市民们,请向全世界展现你们的勇气,这是你们替中国
的受害者挺身而出的机会、是你们替没有声音的受害者发声的机会。请向全世界展现台湾
追求真相的决心,不管挖掘出来的真相为何。
谢谢。
葛特曼谈话英文全文(蝴蝶兰文创创办人吴祥辉提供):
Thank you.
I’ll be speaking about Taiwan today, but I want to begin with four stubborn
facts.
1) Our report, Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter: an Update, released in 2016,
showed that China is not performing 10,000 or 15,000 transplants per year as
Beijing claims, but 60,000 to 100,000 transplants a year. Huang Jiefu, China’
s spokesman on the organ harvesting issue recently embraced that volume. He
says that China will be doing 50,000 transplants in a few years. Where will
the organs come from?
2) Over the last year, Beijing has blood-tested approximately 15 million
Uyghurs – every man, woman and child in Xinjiang.
3) As I speak, over one million Uyghurs are in “Re-education Camps.”
4) And the CCP are building 9 crematoriums in Xinjiang. The first one in
Urumqi has just opened. It has 50 security guards.
We cannot - I cannot - stop Beijing, any more than a monk on the West coast
of Ireland could stop the Vikings from pillaging European civilization. My
job is to compile an accurate history. So, I am going to examine one factor -
one among many - that I believe contributed to the current situation.
It’s a medical technology known as ECMO. Extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation. And a man named Dr. Ko Wen-je, third from the right in this
photograph of an ECMO conference at Wuxi Hospital in 2008. Dr. Ko is
currently mayor of Taipei. Dr. Ko’s involvement in ECMO goes back to at
least 2000.
In 2008, Dr. Ko told me in an interview that he knew first-hand about Falun
Gong organ harvesting in at least one hospital in China back in 2005 – and
that account of the interview, which was agreed on by both parties in
writing, is now in my book, The Slaughter.
That account will never change. But my view of Dr. Ko? That has changed.
As I discovered shortly before I went to Taiwan to promote the Mandarin
publication of my book, Dr. Ko was at this conference only three months
before our interview in 2008. I cannot un-see the picture. And I cannot
un-see the schedule for the conference that Ko participated in.
Many Taiwanese researchers are far more equipped to investigate this
conference than I am. And in fact, my own findings on this conference has
already been surpassed by Falun Gong researchers. But if I use sources I
trust - the 2016 Update with Kilgour and Matas, which I co-wrote, and
documents from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun
Gong, which I co-edited - I can say a few words about the hospitals and
individuals on this schedule.
Every individual and hospital that is suspected to have been involved in the
organ harvesting of political and religious prisoners is highlighted in red.
Although there are ambiguities about Dr. Ko’s activities in China, for
simplicity, I have also highlighted Ko Wen-je’s name in red. Ko was the only
non-mainlander to give a presentation. He presents at the 12:00 session.
This schedule is a sea of red. I’ll just go down the list in order, starting
with the conference venue:
‧ Wuxi People’s Hospital was closely examined in our 2016 update because it
is exclusively approved for lung transplants - and yet we know it also
carries out eight other types - kidney, liver, heart, pancreas, cornea, stem
cell, bone marrow, and vascular grafts. Because Wuxi claims to have completed
more than half of all lung transplant surgeries in China, we suspect that
some of those lungs are from Falun Gong.
‧ Chen Zhonghua participated in multi-organ extractions from 65 “donors”
from January 2000 to August 2006. When Chen ran the Wuhan Tongji hospital
institute of organ transplantation in 2006, the hospital was asked if it
could perform live organ transplantation from Falun Gong prisoners. The
Kidney Transplant department replied: “Sure, it’s no problem…When you are
ready, you can come over directly and we will discuss it in detail.”
‧ Liu Deruo: Department of Surgery in the China-Japan Friendship Hospital. 7
cases of single lung transplantation from brain-dead "donors” – a euphemism
for live organ harvesting - before 2008. The hospital is a common destination
for wealthy Japanese “organ tourists.”
‧ Chen Jingyu, the “No.1 Lung Transplant Surgeon in China.” Extracted
lungs from 129 "donors" from 2002 to 2011. By 2014, Chen was doing up to five
lung transplants per day. Taught perfusion preservation to 30 hospitals in 10
cities and provinces. If I am not mistaken, that’s Dr. Ko on the left, and
Dr. Chen on the right.
‧ Fuwai Hospital, number 1 in heart transplants. Song Yunhu is the chief
surgeon.
‧ Shanghai Chest Hospital, Gao Chengxin. The most bilateral lung transplants
in China to date. Dr. Han Baohui, director of pulmonary medicine at Shanghai
Chest Hospital, reported classmate Zhao Bin to the police for practicing
Falun Gong. Mr. Zhao was arrested in April 2012 and was tortured to death at
a Shanghai facility on October 19, 2013.
‧ Chen Liangwen, VP of Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, extracted
hearts from 111 brain-dead "donors” - average age about 25 years, no
cardiovascular diseases. Warm ischemia time of 0-15 minutes, suggesting
pre-scheduled live organ harvesting.
‧ Wang Chunsheng. Director of Cardiac Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital in
Shanghai, Shanghai’s premier organ transplant center. From 2000 to 2011,
Wang extracted hearts from 298 "donors”: average age 27 years; no
cardiovascular problems. Since 2007, 238 live hearts have been extracted at
Zhongshan.
‧ Here is a recorded phone call to Zhongshan from 2006:
Investigator: … So how long do I have to wait [for organ transplant surgery]?
Doctor: About a week after you come…
Investigator: Is there the kind of organs that come from Falun Gong? I heard
that they are very good.
Doctor: All of ours are those types.
Here’s a quote from Tan Yunshan, director of Zhongshan Hospital’s liver
disease department in 2015.
“All the donor livers are directly extracted at the source. Because we do
the extraction ourselves and have access to the original information of the
donor organ, we would know for sure whether a donor liver can be used or not…
We don’t care whether it’s from a Falun Gong practitioner or not. We don’t
get involved in politics. As doctors, we only care about the donor liver,
about whether it meets the requirements of transplantation. If it meets the
requirements, we don’t care who it’s from.”
‧ Meng Xu, founder of the Beijing Heart Transplant Centre. From 1992 to
2006, Meng participated in the extraction of hearts from 51 “donors”:
males; age range 21-43 years. No cardiovascular diseases. Warm ischemia time,
3-8 minutes. Meng has independently completed nearly 10,000 surgeries, with
over 800 operations every year.
I am going to skip ahead because we are short on time.
‧ Last entry; Tianjin Central Hospital. Estimated to do 5000 transplants
annually, essentially half of the entire transplant volume of China,
according to Chinese official numbers, for over a decade. Over half of its
patients are said to be foreign organ tourists.
So what was this conference about? Well, as the conference subtitle suggests:
Medtronic ECMO. Medtronic is an American company based in Minnesota. And, Dr.
Ko sells Medtronic ECMO machines and expertise on the Mainland.
ECMO can be used during harvesting, but the bottom line is that it prolongs
the opportunity to use a lung or a heart up to eight hours. As Dr. Ko has
pointed out, ECMO saves lives.
Indeed, it does. In Taiwan, in America, in Great Britain, in Japan,
Australia. But in China, with a nearly inexhaustible supply of religious and
political prisoners, do you think the majority of people at this
ECMO conference were interested in saving lives? I think they were interested
in making money. From the perspective of that conference, Dr. Ko was valuable
– until 2008 at least - to the Mainland organ transplant industry in three
ways:
1) As a conduit to “organ tourists” from Taiwan
2) As a salesman of Medtronic ECMO equipment to the Mainland
3) As a teacher of ECMO techniques.
ECMO means that if you are harvesting a Falun Gong, or a Uyghur, or a
Tibetan, you can make a lot more money from harvesting a single person. Here
are the prices. And here is a picture of five Falun Gong refugees.
All of the women in this picture were in labor camp. All were tortured. One
was sexually abused. And the woman on the left, Jing Tian, was examined for
her organs. Before ECMO, if she was harvested while still alive, and tissue
matched to foreign organ tourists who were present at the same hospital, she
was worth $200,000 USD, maybe $250,000 USD, if we throw in the corneas. Let’
s split the difference and call it $225,000 USD.
After ECMO? Jing Tian was worth $680,000 USD. And I think everyone at that
ECMO conference in 2008 understood this calculation.
In short, no matter what the original intentions were, bringing ECMO to China
created a perverse incentive to kill Falun Gong, Uyghurs, House Christians
and Tibetans. We don’t know how many. We don’t know exactly how much Dr. Ko
contributed to ECMO in China. Yet I have no doubt that ECMO accelerated the
killing of innocent people. And I have no doubt that ECMO is a contributing
factor to the spectacular growth of the transplant industry in China - and
the spectacular human rights crisis that we see in Xinjiang today.
But is all this fair to Taiwan? Dr. Ko is the respected mayor of Taipei. He’
s running for reelection. So, does Taiwan really have to deal with questions
about what Dr. Ko was doing at the conference-from-hell a decade ago? In
conclusion then, I want to explain why I think it is my responsibility as a
writer, and as a co-founder of the International Coalition to End Transplant
Abuse in China - or ETAC for short - to ask these questions.
One of the clearest voices in ETAC - a voice of constant wisdom, calm, and
clarity - is that of David Matas. So, when some transplant patients warned us
that our work was being used by anti-vax conspiracy theorists, I proposed
that ETAC begin promoting voluntary organ donation. Matas stopped me short
with a single phrase: “avoid mission creep.” And he was right; groups
dilute their strength by adopting other agendas. And ETAC’s primary mission
is to save lives in China.
And yet: David Matas recently compared organ harvesting of political and
religious prisoners in China to a virus, a virus which does not end at China’
s borders, but has begun to infect pockets of the global medical community.
Think of the Vatican conferences on human trafficking, where China’s organ
transplant apparatus was presented as an example for the world to follow.
Think of The Transplantation Society’s high-profile visits to China, where
members of their entourage referred to Falun Gong as an “evil cult” - to
the delight of the Mainland Chinese Press.
Think of Huang Jiefu’s promise to bring Chinese transplant methods,
including the transport of human organs, as a sort of perk to participants in
China’s Belt and Road initiative.
So, if ETAC has another mission – a mission which clearly separates us from
the sort of activism that can be reduced to a T-shirt slogan such as “Save
the whales” or “Free Tibet”- it is this: history matters.
Mass murder - or “Cold Genocide” if you prefer - permanently alters the DNA
of a society, not only in the victim populations, where the trauma ripples
through generation after generation, but in the perpetrator class as well,
where mass murder becomes an accepted method, an option, a tactic, to solve a
problem or cover up an inconvenient crime. And I submit that describes
Chinese organ harvesting accurately over the last two decades. And that
history must be exposed. And we have no choice but to call out anyone who
actively seeks to suppress that history.
Just two weeks ago, I watched as Taiwan’s Ministry of Health showed a
surprising new transparency regarding the number of Taiwanese organ tourists
who went to the Mainland - and resolved to enforce penalties on those who
continue to flaunt Taiwan’s regulations. And I sat down in Taipei with some
of the most impressive research professionals in the world.
And what is the focus of their investigations? It can be summarized in a
single world: Complicity. It may be a minority at present, but many in Taiwan
want to end medical complicity with the Mainland and they have opened
multiple investigative lines. ECMO is only one piece of the puzzle. Several
individuals – I won’t name them here - from several Taiwanese medical
entities, possibly with different political affiliations - will likely be
exposed.
This is the darkness that lies ahead. This is the unspoken fear that haunts
Taiwanese society.
Now, it is much easier to attack me - or my 15-year-old son’s Instagram page
for that matter - than to face that fear. Or to threaten Falun Gong
practitioners. Or my publisher. Or to dismiss the whole thing as a political
stunt. Or to simply say that there is “no evidence.”
Human Rights Organizations around the world quietly said just that for many
years, until there was a tipping point. Our reports were, to paraphrase the
US Congress, simply too “persistent and credible” to be ignored. Hearings
were held. The press reported. And professionals from around the world laid
their reputations on the line by joining Doctors Against Forced Organ
Harvesting and ETAC. It became simply too embarrassing for Human Rights NGOs
to deny the harvesting issue. Yet they did not shout “bloody murder” from
the rooftops. Neither did any China-based reporter who treasures their
Beijing access. Because their own actions during the years of denial was a
form of “soft complicity.”
So yes, Taiwan is hardly alone in complicity. And that complicity is why
Beijing has been able to carry out a vast crime against humanity in plain
sight of the world, with relatively little consequence. And the lethargic
Western response has terrible implications for our collective future.
And that is why the eyes of the world are on Taiwan today. Because Western,
Japanese and South Korean medical entities - whether they have hard or soft
complicity in Chinese organ harvesting - are watching. Medtronic, The
Transplantation Society, and the Vatican are watching. The US Congress and
Westminster are watching. How strange for such a small country to have such
influence, such power. But, just this once, Taiwan has the whip hand.
As someone who has taken a few punches - and as someone who has pushed back a
little too - I respect Taiwan’s free press and democracy. Politics may be a
contact sport, and the news cycle may come down to 6 hours rather than 24,
but the energy? It is irresistible. I suspect that Taiwan will find the truth
of these matters – and I will advocate for Taiwan as the forward base of
ETAC investigative activities going forward.
While I was in Taiwan, the news came that Beijing, finally feeling the global
heat for incarcerating a million Uyghurs in camps, has moved 300,000 Uyghurs
to undisclosed locations. Those locations may – or may not – be near organ
harvesting facilities and hospitals. That’s speculation. It’s too early to
say. But we are through the looking glass here - and it is theoretically
possible that how Taiwan reacts might even influence how many Uyghur men,
women, and even children will live or die.
So if Taiwan is listening? Show us the way, Taipei. This is your time to
stand up for China’s victims, to speak up for those who have no voice. Show
us that Taiwan will follow the truth, wherever it may lead.
Thank you.
附注、心得、想法︰葛特曼又在帮柯文哲助选,民进党惨了!