Toronto Forum: Organ Harvesting Is a Holocaust (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) In the afternoon of May 17, a forum titled "BLOODY HARVEST: 'A New Form of Evil on Our Planet'" was held in the University of Toronto's Medical Science Building. The forum was organized by Doctors Against Organ Harvesting and University of Toronto China Research Association, and guest speakers included David Kilgour, former MP and Secretary of State, co-author of "Bloody Harvest," Torsten Trey, MD, Cardiologist, founding member & spokesman for Doctors, and Mr. Erping Zhang, Falun Gong spokesperson.

Forum host Gerry Koffman, a Toronto general practitioner and member of Doctors Against Organ Harvesting: This is a Holocaust, no question about it

MD Torsten Trey, spokesperson for Doctors Against Organ Harvesting at the forum

A medical professional from the audience: Falun Gong practitioners are so peaceful and kind, no one has the right to harvest organs from them

"There's a Holocaust Happening in China"

Toronto family doctor Gerry Koffman moderated the forum. He told the audience that the widespread organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners is a genocide. "This is a Holocaust, no question about it." Koffman said.

Dr. Koffman has practiced medicine for 35 years. He said that he ran into an Epoch Times article about organ harvesting. After did his own online investigation, he decided to join the Doctors Against Organ Harvesting group.

Koffman said that organ harvesting is a Holocaust in China. "I am a Jew, and many of my family members died in Nazi's concentration camps. Facing such atrocities, conscience forbids me from remaining silence."

China Must Have a Pool of Living Donors

Dr. Torsten Trey is a founding member of Doctors against Organ Harvesting. In his speech, he discussed several important evidences of the Chinese Communist Party's atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.

Citing a report from Phoenix TV, Dr. Trey pointed out that there were only 106 kidney transplant centers among which 22 centers were capable of performing liver transplants. Several years later, the total number of kidney transplant centers jumped to 368 among which 200 centers were capable of performing liver transplants. Referring to a China Daily report, Dr. Trey said that Chinese doctors performed 20,000 organ transplants in 2005.

He went on to add that the large numbers of unaccounted organs are especially remarkable since China is a society that is traditionally reluctant to donate organs, and does not have a organ transparent donation program.

The situation in China is that donors are waiting in line for a recipient, said Dr. Trey, adding that there must be a pool of living donors. He mentioned an ad found in April 2006, published in a Chinese newspaper, advertising: "Twenty organ transplants free of charge" at the Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, for which people could register by calling the hospital's hotline.

Testimony of Practitioner

Falun Gong practitioner Dai Ying was unlawfully detained in China for 5 years. At the forum, she recounted her personal experience in Sanshui Labor Camp.

At the labor amp, she was subjected to beating, sleep deprivation, and many other tortures. In May 2004, the authorities took a blood sample from her for testing and examined her whole body. She also witnessed that more than 160 practitioner inmates who were also subjected to the same examination.

Guards claimed that the examination was conducted because the Chinese Government was especially concerned for practitioners' health. Ironically, the special care goes hand in hand with brutal torture.

"They even took an X-ray on me in a bus used to transport us." Dai Ying said.

Trey Called for Actions to End Organ Harvesting Atrocities

Dr. Treston Trey emphasized that the Doctors against Organ Harvesting was formed by doctors to safeguard the ethical standards in medicine. He stressed that even though this practice is taking place in China, it nevertheless affects the whole world, especially the medical profession.

Dr. Trey described how this is a threat to the ethical standards in medicine worldwide, and should not be seen as an isolated issue.

Each recipient going to China asking for an organ is causing the death of a healthy, living person.

That is why his organization is issuing an urgent call to the medical community to inform patients who are considering China for an organ transplant of the implications of their actions.

At the end of his speech, Trey appealed: Medical periodicals should not accept articles from China on organ transplants as those practices should not become part of medical knowledge; doctors should inform your patients about these issues so that they will not lose trust in this profession; everyone should take action to help end the organ harvesting atrocities in China.

A medial professional from the audience shared her thoughts at the forum. She said that all patients waiting for organs should be informed of the sources of organs. There must be many people who don't know of these atrocities. Otherwise, they wouldn't have accepted those organs, especially organs from Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong practitioners are so peaceful and kind, no one has the right to remove organs from their bodies.