EU ‘risks complicity in Chinese organ harvesting’

THE EU is potentially “complicit” in crimes against humanity in China involving illegal organ harvesting, human rights campaigners have warned.

The bloc’s top foreign representative has been urged to end medical collaborations with China, given the impossibility of knowing whether Chinese doctors and institutions are complicit in the practice.

Josep Borrell was also told to force health professionals in the EU to record when patients travel abroad for organs, in order to crack down on unethical transplants.

The warning came in an open letter organised by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), which warned of “rising cases of transplant abuse involving EU citizens”.

A growing number of experts and organisations across the globe are sounding the alarm over the practice of killing political prisoners for their organs.

Researchers estimate that since the early 2000s there have been up to 100,000 transplants a year in China.

Falun Gong practitioners, a heavily persecuted group, are believed to be the main source, with Uyghurs also falling victim.

Lawyers have warned that the practice is so widespread throughout China that Western institutions who collaborate with Chinese medics and hospitals – for example by providing surgical training or equipment – could be inadvertently complicit.

In March, The Sunday Telegraph revealed Oxford University had organised training programmes attended by Chinese transplant doctors facing allegations of illegally harvesting human organs. The programmes were endorsed by the European Society for Organ Transplantation.

Oxford said its Centre for Evidence in Transplantation had provided webinars to raise standards in research practices, rather than direct transplant practice or surgery training.

Mr Borrell’s office has been approached for comment.