SUMMARY
Forced Organ Harvesting from Falun Gong
Practitioners in China
Source: Wikipedia — "Forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China"
Type: Encyclopedic reference article
Coverage: 2000–2024
Overview of the Allegations
Allegations of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of
conscience in the People's Republic of China have generated sustained international concern
since 2006. The first reports emerged from the Falun Gong-affiliated Epoch Times, and were
subsequently taken up by independent investigators. Former Canadian parliamentarian David
Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas estimated that over 41,500 organ transplants
between 2000 and 2005 were unexplained and proposed that Falun Gong practitioners were
the most plausible source. Journalist Ethan Gutmann independently estimated that 65,000
Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs between 2000 and 2008.
In 2016, Kilgour, Matas, and Gutmann updated their research and estimated that 60,000 to
100,000 transplant surgeries were performed annually in China — far exceeding the
government's official figure of roughly 10,000 per year. An independent tribunal convened in
London (the "China Tribunal") concluded in 2019 that forced organ harvesting had occurred
on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners were the primary source. Since 2020,
Gutmann has estimated that 25,000 to 50,000 Uyghurs may also be killed annually for their
organs.

Background: Organ Transplantation in China
China operates one of the world's largest organ transplant programs. The Chinese Ministry of
Health reported that kidney transplants rose from 3,000 per year in 1997 to roughly 10,000
in 2004. Wait times for vital organs in China are among the shortest globally — often just
weeks for kidneys, livers, and hearts — making it a major destination for transplant tourism.
Organ transplant recipients in China are generally not told the identity of the donor, nor
provided evidence of written consent. A 1984 regulation permitted organ removal from
executed criminals, and by the 1990s, human rights organizations were condemning the use
of prisoner organs. Between 2003 and 2009, only 130 people volunteered as organ donors
nationwide. China's Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu acknowledged on several occasions
that approximately 65% of transplants were sourced from executed prisoners.
Key data anomaly: Researchers found that China's reported voluntary organ donation
data from 2010–2018 match a quadratic equation with model parsimony one to two
orders of magnitude smoother than other nations, suggesting the data may have been
falsified or manipulated. Some apparently nonvoluntary donors appear to have been
misclassified as voluntary.
The Persecution of Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a qigong discipline involving meditation and a moral philosophy rooted in
Buddhist tradition. By 1998, Chinese government sources estimated 70 million practitioners.
In July 1999, Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin launched a nationwide campaign to
eradicate the group. An extra-constitutional body called the 6-10 Office was created to lead
the persecution, and authorities mobilized the media, judiciary, police, army, education
system, families, and workplaces against practitioners.

Since 1999, Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to systematic torture, mass
imprisonment, forced labor, and psychiatric abuse. As of 2009, the New York Times reported
at least 2,000 practitioners killed; Falun Gong sources documented over 3,700 named deaths
by 2013, though these figures likely represent only a fraction of actual deaths.
Investigations and Key Findings
Epoch Times Reports and Sujiatun (2006)
In early 2006, three individuals claimed knowledge of involuntary organ extractions at the
Sujiatun Thrombosis Hospital in Shenyang. U.S. State Department representatives visited
the facility twice and found no direct evidence of organ harvesting, but expressed continued
concern about China's treatment of Falun Gong.
Kilgour-Matas Report (2006–2009)
Kilgour and Matas compiled over 30 strands of evidence consistent with forced organ
harvesting — including statistical analyses, interviews with former prisoners, and recorded
admissions from Chinese hospitals about the availability of Falun Gong practitioners' organs.
Though denied visas to China, they concluded that Chinese government agencies had killed
a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience and sold their organs.
They qualified their report by noting that no independent organizations are allowed to
investigate conditions in China.
A Congressional Research Service report by Thomas Lum characterized the Kilgour-Matas
report as relying largely on logical inference, with questionable credibility of much of the
key evidence. The 2007 updated report and 2009 book received international media
coverage. Kilgour and Matas won the 2009 Human Rights Award from the International
Society for Human Rights and were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

Ethan Gutmann's Investigation (2006–2014)
Gutmann conducted interviews with over 100 refugees from China's labor camp and prison
system and with Chinese law enforcement and medical professionals. He traced the practice
of organ harvesting to the late 1980s in Xinjiang, where ethnic Uyghurs were targeted, and
argued that after 1999 the new Falun Gong prisoner population overtook Uyghurs as a major
organ source. He estimated approximately 65,000 practitioners were killed for their organs
between 2000 and 2008. His findings were published in 2014 as The Slaughter.
The China Tribunal (2018–2019)
The Independent Tribunal Into Forced Organ Harvesting of Prisoners of Conscience in China
was initiated by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC).
Chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, who had previously led the international prosecution of
Slobodan Milošević, the tribunal heard evidence over six months, including analyses of
transplant data, testimony from ex-prisoners, covertly recorded phone calls with surgeons,
and undercover hospital footage.
Tribunal finding (June 2019): The tribunal unanimously concluded that crimes
against humanity had been committed, involving hundreds of thousands of victims.
Forced organ harvesting had been carried out for years throughout China on a
significant scale, with Falun Gong practitioners as the primary source. An estimated
60,000–90,000 transplant operations occurred annually. The chair stated there was no
evidence the practice had stopped.

Evidence Cited by Investigators
Surge in Organ Transplants After 1999
Organ transplant volumes grew rapidly from 2000 onward, coinciding with the mass
detention of Falun Gong practitioners. The number of liver transplant centers in China rose
from 22 to over 500 between 1999 and 2006. One hospital reported performing 9 liver
transplants in 1998 but 676 in four months of 2005. This expansion occurred without
corresponding improvements to voluntary donation systems or increases in the supply of
death-row inmates as donors.
Insufficient Known Organ Sources
A 2005 U.S. congressional report found that up to 95% of transplant organs in China were
sourced from prisoners. However, China's legal executions — estimated at 1,770 to 8,000 in
2006 — were far fewer than the number of transplants performed. Only 130 voluntary
donors registered between 2003 and 2009. Because China lacked an organized organ
matching system, multiple organs were rarely harvested from a single donor, and many
death-row inmates had disqualifying health conditions such as hepatitis B.
Short Wait Times Indicating On-Demand Killing
Chinese transplant centers advertised wait times of one to four weeks for kidneys and livers
— compared to two to four years in countries like the United States, Canada, and the UK.
Because organs must be transplanted within hours of procurement (kidneys within 24–48
hours, livers within 12, hearts within 8), these wait times imply a pool of living donors
whose organs can be removed on demand. Medical experts noted that China's short wait
times could not be assured on a "random death" basis, and that physicians were selecting live
prisoners to ensure quality and compatibility.

Mass Detention and Medical Testing
Since 1999, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained, making
them the largest group of prisoners of conscience in China. The U.S. Department of State
cited estimates that half of China's 250,000 labor camp population were Falun Gong
practitioners. Former prisoners reported that practitioners received the longest sentences and
worst treatment. A UN Special Rapporteur study found that 66% of reported torture cases
from China involved Falun Gong victims.
Multiple former prisoners reported undergoing medical tests in detention that were
exclusively aimed at assessing the health of internal organs — large-volume blood draws,
abdominal x-rays, electrocardiograms, and organ probes — while physical injuries were
ignored. These tests are consistent with screening for organ compatibility.
Phone Calls and Recorded Admissions
Overseas Falun Gong members placed phone calls to Chinese hospitals and detention centers
posing as prospective organ recipients. In several instances, officials and medical staff
provided recorded admissions that organs from Falun Gong practitioners were available. A
police official in Mishan city confirmed having five to eight Falun Gong practitioners under
age 40 as potential organ suppliers. A doctor at Shanghai's Zhongshan Hospital stated that all
the hospital's organs were sourced from Falun Gong practitioners. Kilgour and Matas
acknowledged that some staff may have been telling callers what they wanted to hear.
Commercial Incentives and the Bo Xilai Connection
The growth of China's commercial organ trade is linked to economic reforms that reduced
government funding for healthcare. Transplant hospitals catered to wealthy foreigners paying
upwards of $100,000 for organs. Liaoning province, governed by Bo Xilai from 2001 to
2004, was identified as a major center for organ harvesting. Bo's associate Wang Lijun ran a
transplantation facility that reportedly oversaw "several thousand" transplants. Gutmann

argued it was extremely unlikely all organs came from death-row prisoners, noting that
Liaoning detained large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners.
Counterarguments
A 2016 Associated Press article noted that claims of forced organ harvesting had not been
independently verified, partly due to China's opaque legal system. A 2017 Washington Post
article cited data from Quintiles IMS showing that China's share of global
immunosuppressant drug demand was approximately in line with its official transplant
figures, though investigators responded that drug prices in China are 2.5 to 4 times cheaper
than in the U.S. and that unofficial hospital pharmacies are not captured in IMS data.
Lawyers who represented Falun Gong practitioners reportedly rejected organ harvesting
allegations. Australian transplant surgeon Jeremy Chapman dismissed the Kilgour-Matas
report.
Chinese Government Response
The Chinese government has denied organ harvesting allegations, characterizing them as
agitation by Falun Gong. It acknowledged that executed prisoners were once used as a
source of organs and pledged reforms toward voluntary donation. However, between 2006
and 2008, it failed to address repeated UN Special Rapporteur requests to explain the sources
of transplant organs. The government has also sought to suppress public discussion of the
issue internationally — intervening to cancel a CBC documentary in 2007, attempting to
cancel a talk by David Matas in Israel, and imprisoning a Falun Gong practitioner who spoke
with a visiting British politician about organ harvesting.

International Response
Medical Community
The World Medical Association demanded in 2006 that China stop using prisoners as organ
donors. Several medical journals — including the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the
American Journal of Transplantation — declared they would no longer publish articles on
Chinese organ transplantation without evidence of non-coerced donor consent. Writing in
The Lancet in 2011, prominent surgeons and bioethicists called for a boycott of Chinese
transplant science. The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation issued a
2022 policy statement excluding transplant research involving Chinese donors from its
publications.
United Nations
From 2006 to 2008, UN Special Rapporteurs made repeated requests to China regarding the
source of transplant organs. A 2008 report by Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak
noted that the discrepancy between available organs and identifiable sources correlates with
the persecution of Falun Gong. In June 2021, UN human rights experts expressed alarm over
credible information that minority detainees in China may be forcibly subjected to blood
tests and organ examinations.
Legislative Actions
The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed resolutions condemning organ
harvesting from prisoners of conscience in 2014 and 2016, and unanimously passed the
Falun Gong Protection Act in June 2024. The European Parliament adopted resolutions
expressing concern in 2013 and 2022. Israel banned insurance coverage for organ purchases
abroad in 2007. Spain implemented a 2010 law prohibiting organ transplant tourism. Taiwan
amended its transplant laws in 2015. Canada passed bill S-223 criminalizing trafficking in

human organs in December 2022. Italy made organ trafficking a crime in 2015, and Australia
banned the training of Chinese surgeons at its major transplant hospitals in 2006.
The Case of Cheng Pei Ming
In August 2024, The Diplomat published the account of Cheng Pei Ming, a Falun Gong
practitioner detained in 2002 and subjected to repeated operations, including an open chest
surgery in 2004 to remove objects he had swallowed — a procedure that is normally done
via endoscopy. He escaped detention in 2006, hid in China for nine years, spent five years as
a refugee in Thailand, and entered the United States in 2020. Medical examinations show
that portions of his liver and lung had been removed. Cheng is reported to be the only known
survivor of forced organ harvesting.