ORGAN HARVESTING

July 6, 2006 Press Gallery, Parliament Hill, Ottawa Narration: After two months of investigation and evidence collection, the independent investigation team formed by David Kilgour and David Matas, which investigated the allegation of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China, released its report today.

ORONTO, September 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Before the practice of organ donation and transplants began, the definition of death was not very difficult. If a person had no signs of life, if his brain, heart and other organs had ceased to show any activity, he was dead. But in the age of transplants and “miraculous” resuscitation, what constitutes death has become a controversial issue. Increasingly, the need to wait until the patient is no longer using his organs, is being overlooked in the rush to get fresh organs to transplant patients. The longer a donor has been dead, the less likely a donated organ will be to “take” in a recipient’s body.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Organ harvesting from patients before brain-death has been declared as a rapidly increasing trend in U. S. hospitals, the Washington Post reported March 18, alarming doctors and ethicists about the dubious ethics behind the practice. Instead of waiting until brain function ceases and the patient is declared "brain-dead" .....

In order to obtain enough organs to be transplanted into needy patients, should laws be passed which allow organs to be obtained from persons who have died without the prior permission of the patient or any permission of the family?

Organ donation is the procedure of donating an organ after making an informed and active decision in the mental status of clear consciousness, commonly understood as “donating with consent”. Donating an organ is a voluntary act and expresses the free wish and will of the organ donor. Recent publications about illegal forms of organ removals for transplantation purposes mainly reported from China and summarized in the Kilgour & Matas Report triggered the wish in the medical community to found a medical organization that will look particularly into illegal and unethical forms of organ harvesting.

Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China by David Matas, Esq. and Hon. David Kilgour, Esq. 31 January 2007