July 29, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 128 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S5140-S5141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-122. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Missouri calling on the President of the 
     United States to undertake a full and transparent 
     investigation by the United States Department of State into 
     organ transplant practices in the People's Republic of China, 
     and to call for the prosecution of those found to have 
     engaged in such unethical practices; to the Committee on 
     Foreign Relations.

                   Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 6

       Whereas, extensive and credible reports have revealed mass 
     killing of prisoners of conscience in the People's Republic 
     of China, primarily practitioners of the spiritual based 
     exercises of Falun Gong, but also other religious and ethnic 
     minority groups, in order to obtain organs for transplants: 
     and
       Whereas, the organ transplantation system in China docs not 
     comply with the World Health Organization's Guiding 
     Principles of traceability and transparency in organ 
     procurement pathways, and the government of the People's 
     Republic of China has resisted independent scrutiny of the 
     system; and
       Whereas, traditional Chinese custom requires bodies to be 
     preserved intact after death. With rare voluntary organ 
     donation, however, China's transplantation industry 
     significantly increased since 2000; and
       Whereas, the 2017 Freedom House Report ``The Battle for 
     China's Spirit'' states that ``Available evidence suggests 
     that forced extraction of organs from Falun Gong detainees 
     for sale in transplant operations has occurred on a large 
     scale and may be continuing''; and
       Whereas, an investigative report, published in June 2016, 
     conducted by human rights attorney David Matas, former 
     Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour, 
     and journalist Ethan Gutmann, estimated that China is 
     performing 60,000 to 100,000 transplants per year as opposed 
     to 10,000 transplants claimed by the Chinese government, 
     which is ``an industrial-scale, state-directed organ 
     transplantation system, controlled through national policies 
     and funding, and implicating both the military and civilian 
     healthcare systems''; and
       Whereas, China's Liver Transplant Registry System indicated 
     that more than 25% of cases were emergency transplants, for 
     which an organ was found within days or even hours. Wait 
     times for non-emergency liver transplants were usually quoted 
     in weeks. Most patients in other countries have to wait years 
     for a transplant; and
       Whereas, the Chinese government claims that 90% of China's 
     organ transplant sources come from executed prisoners. 
     However, the number of executions has dropped 10% annually 
     since 2002 and is far less than the number of transplants 
     taking place. The government has never acknowledged the 
     sourcing of organs from prisoners of conscience; and
       Whereas, Falun Gong, a spiritual practice involving 
     meditative ``qigong'' exercises and centered on the values of 
     truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, became immensely 
     popular in China in the 1990s, with multiple estimates 
     placing the number of practitioners at upwards of 70 million; 
     and
       Whereas, in July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched 
     an intensive, nationwide persecution designed to eradicate 
     the spiritual practice of Falun Gong, including physical and 
     mental torture, reflecting the party's long-standing 
     intolerance of large independent civil society groups; and
       Whereas, since 1999, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong 
     practitioners have been detained extra-legally in Chinese 
     reeducation-through-labor camps, detention centers, and 
     prisons, where torture, abuse, and implausible medical exams 
     and blood tests on Falun Gong practitioners are routine; and
       Whereas, Freedom House reported in 2015 that Falun Gong 
     practitioners comprise the largest portion of prisoners of 
     conscience in China, and face an elevated risk of dying or 
     being killed in custody; and
       Whereas, the United Nations Committee Against Torture and 
     the Special Rapporteur on Torture have expressed concern over 
     the allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong 
     prisoners, and have called on the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China to increase accountability and transparency 
     in the organ transplant system and punish those responsible 
     for abuses; and
       Whereas, in June 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives 
     unanimously passed House Resolution 343, condemning the 
     systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from Falun Gong 
     and other prisoners of conscience; and
       Whereas, the killing of religious or political prisoners 
     for the purpose of selling their organs for transplant is an 
     egregious and intolerable violation of the fundamental right 
     to live; and
       Whereas, organ tourism to China should not be shielded by 
     medical confidentiality, but openly monitored. No nation 
     should allow their citizens to go to China for organs until 
     China has allowed a full investigation into organ harvesting 
     of prisoners of conscience, both past and present: Now 
     therefore be it
       Resolved, That the members of the Missouri Senate, One-
     Hundredth General Assembly, first Regular Session, the House 
     of Representatives concurring therein:
       (1) Call upon the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to immediately end the practice of organ harvesting 
     from all prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and 
     explicitly from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience and 
     members of other religious and ethnic minority groups;
       (2) Call upon the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to immediately end the 17-year persecution of the Falun 
     Gong, and the immediate release of all Falun Gong 
     practitioners and other prisoners of conscience;
       (3) Call upon the President of the United States to 
     undertake a full and transparent investigation by the United 
     States Department of State into organ transplant practices in 
     the People's Republic of China, and calls for the prosecution 
     of those found to have engaged in such unethical practices;
       (4) Encourage the medical community of Missouri to engage 
     in educating colleagues and residents of Missouri about the 
     risks of travel to China for organ transplants so as to help 
     prevent Missouri residents from unwittingly becoming involved 
     in murder in the form of forced organ harvesting from 
     prisoners of conscience; and
       (5) Agree to take measures to ban the entry of those who 
     have participated in illegal removal of human tissues and 
     organs, and seek prosecution of such individuals should they 
     be found on the soil of Missouri; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of the Missouri Senate be 
     instructed to prepare properly inscribed copies of this 
     resolution for

[[Page S5141]]

     the President and Vice President of the United States, the 
     President and Secretary of the United States Senate, the 
     Speaker and Clerk of the United States House of 
     Representatives, the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign 
     Affairs, the chair of the House Committee on Foreign 
     Relations, and each member of Missouri's Congressional 
     delegation.

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