The president of the Israel Transplantation Society is among several medical professionals voicing their concerns on Chinese participation at a high profile organ transplantation event being held in Hong Kong.
A day before The Transplant Society (TTS) began its biennial transplant congress, Jacob Lavee, a heart surgeon from the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, co-authored an article published in the American Journal of Transplantation that raised alarm bells over China's controversial transplant industry.
"The inclusion of China in the international transplant community must be strictly dependent upon the independent verification of a complete cessation in the use of organs procured from executed prisoners, acknowledgment from China of the previous use of prisoners of conscience for their organs, and the repeal of legislation that still permits the practice," Lavee co-wrote with four other medical professionals from the medical advocacy group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting.
"Given the allegations of crimes against humanity in China in the form of the killing of executed prisoners and prisoners of conscience, mainly of Falun Gong practitioners, in a state-led, systematic process, demands for transparency are indispensable," stated the article.
"As the global transplant community converges on Hong Kong for the congress of the Transplantation Society, it is both timely and imperative to remind the transplantation community of the plight of victims of forced organ procurement that, on the basis of current evidence, continues to this day in China."
Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting has been nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for its advocacy work in trying to end unethical organ transplant practices.