LRB-4396/1
CMH&JK:amn
2019 - 2020 LEGISLATURE
November 1, 2019 - Introduced by Senators Jacque, Larson, Nass, Stroebel and
L. Taylor, cosponsored by Representatives Thiesfeldt, Anderson, Ballweg,
Bowen, Gundrum, Horlacher, Kulp, Murphy, Pope, C. Taylor, Vruwink and
Wichgers. Referred to Committee on Senate Organization.
SJR72,1,5 1Relating to: expressing concern over persistent and credible reports of systematic,
2state-sanctioned, forced organ harvesting from nonconsenting prisoners of
3conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned for their spiritual
4beliefs and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups in the
5People's Republic of China.
SJR72,1,86 Whereas, when performed in accordance with ethical standards, the medical
7discipline of organ transplantation is one of the great achievements of modern
8medicine; and
SJR72,1,119 Whereas, organ transplantation depends on altruistic organ donation, which
10is based on free, voluntary, and informed consent of the donor, not his or her killer;
11and
SJR72,1,1312 Whereas, free, voluntary, and informed consent cannot be guaranteed for death
13row prisoners who are deprived of their freedom and exposed to coercion; and
SJR72,2,3
1Whereas, forced organ harvesting is understood as organ procurement without
2free, voluntary, and informed consent, and includes jeopardizing the survival of the
3nonconsenting organ donor; and
SJR72,2,74 Whereas, the People's Republic of China implemented a regulation in 1984 that
5permits organ harvesting from executed prisoners, a practice that is banned by the
6World Medical Association and international ethical standards but continues
7unabated to date in China; and
SJR72,2,118 Whereas, the organ transplantation system in China does not comply with the
9World Health Organization's Guiding Principles of traceability and transparency in
10organ procurement pathways, and the government of the People's Republic of China
11has resisted independent scrutiny of the system; and
SJR72,2,1512 Whereas, the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011 by the U.S.
13Department of State reporting on China stated, “Overseas and domestic media and
14advocacy groups continued to report instances of organ harvesting, particularly from
15Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs"; and
SJR72,2,1916 Whereas, Falun Gong, a spiritual practice involving meditative “qigong"
17exercises and centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance,
18became immensely popular in China in the 1990s, with multiple estimates placing
19the number of practitioners at upwards of 70 million; and
SJR72,2,2520 Whereas, in July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched an intensive,
21nationwide persecution, including physical and mental torture, designed to
22eradicate the spiritual practice of Falun Gong due to its growth and independence
23from the state, just as religious and ethnic groups have long been persecuted by
24Chinese government authorities because they are perceived as a threat to the
25communist regime; and
SJR72,3,4
1Whereas, since 1999, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have
2been detained extralegally in Chinese reeducation-through-labor camps, detention
3centers, and prisons, where torture, abuse, and implausible medical exams and blood
4tests on Falun Gong practitioners are routine; and
SJR72,3,75 Whereas, the number of organ transplant operations in China increased by
6more than 500 percent within five years after 1999, corresponding with the onset of
7the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners; and
SJR72,3,108 Whereas, the increase of transplant organs is not attributable to an overall
9increase in the number of death row inmates or to a public organ donation system
10or another publicly recognized organ source; and
SJR72,3,1311 Whereas, the government of the People's Republic of China has not provided
12any explanation for the sudden increase of donor organs and the short wait times of
13one to four weeks for kidney and liver transplants; and
SJR72,3,1914 Whereas, two Canadian researchers — David Matas, a human rights attorney,
15and David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific — conducted
16an investigation into allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of
17conscience in 2006 and concluded, based on extensive circumstantial evidence, that
18the allegations were true and that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners may
19have been killed for their organs; and
SJR72,3,2320 Whereas, in 2006, doctors from 17 Chinese hospitals admitted in phone calls
21with undercover investigators that they have used or could obtain vital organs of
22Falun Gong prisoners of conscience for transplant, with some of the doctors
23implicating local courts and security agencies in the organ procurement process; and
SJR72,4,3
1Whereas, Ethan Gutmann published findings that Chinese security agencies
2began harvesting organs from members of the predominantly Muslim Uighur ethnic
3minority group in the 1990s, including from Uighur political prisoners; and
SJR72,4,84 Whereas, the United Nations Committee Against Torture and the Special
5Rapporteur on Torture have expressed concern over the allegations of organ
6harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners, and have called on the government of the
7People's Republic of China to increase accountability and transparency in the organ
8transplant system and punish those responsible for abuses; and
SJR72,4,149 Whereas, Huang Jiefu announced in December 2014 that the People's Republic
10of China will end organ harvesting from executed prisoners by January 1, 2015,
11while simultaneously stating that death row prisoners are citizens who have the
12“right" to donate their organs and that their organs will be entered into the organ
13allocation program, and therefore the organ procurement from death row prisoners
14will continue under this new semantic terminology; and
SJR72,4,1815 Whereas, the aforementioned announcement made by Huang Jiefu has not
16been verified on official, publicly accessible websites or information boards of the
17Chinese ministry of health, and therefore remains an announcement by a single
18person, but not an announcement of the government; and
SJR72,4,2019 Whereas, the People's Republic of China neither acknowledged the organ
20harvesting from prisoners of conscience, nor expressed the cessation of it; and
SJR72,4,2521 Whereas, the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group, the International
22Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and Doctors Against Forced Organ
23Harvesting expressed in public statements that the announcement to end the organ
24harvesting by January 2015 is not credible, but only a semantic alteration of the
25same practice; and
SJR72,5,3
1Whereas, in January 2015, the White House, in response to the petition “We the
2People," expressed its opposition to China's practice of harvesting organs from
3executed prisoners; and
SJR72,5,64 Whereas, according to a 2017 Freedom House report on religious freedom in
5China, there is “credible evidence suggesting that beginning in the early 2000s,
6Falun Gong detainees were killed for their organs on a large scale”; and
SJR72,5,97 Whereas, the killing of religious or political prisoners for the purpose of selling
8their organs for transplant is an egregious and intolerable violation of human dignity
9and the fundamental right to live; and
SJR72,5,1410 Whereas, in September 2012, experts testified before the House of
11Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that U.S. patients continue to travel to
12China for organ transplants and that the medical community continues cooperation
13and training with Chinese colleagues, creating the risk that they may be indirectly
14aiding abusive practices; and
SJR72,5,2115 Whereas, an independent international tribunal, the China Tribunal,
16investigated the claim of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in
17China and states in its December 2018 short form summary of its findings: “ The
18Tribunal's members are certain — unanimously, and sure beyond reasonable doubt
19— that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been
20practiced for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of
21victims”; and
SJR72,5,2522 Whereas, the China Tribunal's final report, released on June 17, 2019,
23concludes that “forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout
24China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one — and
25probably the main — source of organ supply”; now, therefore, be it
SJR72,6,1
1Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That:
SJR72,6,52 (1) The government of the People's Republic of China must by moral necessity
3immediately end the practice of organ harvesting from all prisoners, particularly
4including prisoners of conscience due to adherence to Falun Gong and members of
5other religious and ethnic minority groups; and
SJR72,6,96 (2) The government of the People's Republic of China is morally obligated to
7recognize religious freedom and to immediately end its longtime persecution of the
8Falun Gong and other ethnic and religious groups, and to immediately release these
9prisoners of conscience; and
SJR72,6,1310 (3) The Wisconsin Legislature supports undertaking a full and transparent
11investigation into organ transplant practices in the People's Republic of China, and
12calls for the prosecution of those found to have engaged in such unethical practices;
13and
SJR72,6,1614 (4) The Wisconsin Legislature opposes the entry of those who have participated
15in illegal removal of human tissues and organs, and seeks the prosecution of such
16individuals should they be found on Wisconsin soil.
SJR72,6,1717 (End)
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