Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting
Promoting Ethical Practices in Medicine
| Sign our petition ! DAFOH is asking the Chinese Ministry of Health for transparent transplantation figures. |
________________________
Publications about unethical and forced organ procurement practices mainly reported from China and summarized in the Kilgour & Matas Report triggered the wish in the medical community to found the medical organization Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) that will look particularly into illegal and unethical forms of organ harvesting. Membership is free for medical doctors and medical professionals.
DAFOH considers any form of organ removal that jeopardizes the donor’s life and welfare, or which pursues to end a donor’s life in order to obtain an organ for transplantation or other reason, to be unethical organ harvesting. This is in contrast with donating an organ for transplantation with consent.
In this regard the systematic organ harvesting practices in China are of major concern for medical doctors worldwide.
DAFOH seeks to bring unethical medical practices to public awareness, to initiate further investigation and to promote ethical practices in medicine.
______________________
United Nations calls on China to prosecute Organ Harvesters
The UN Committee against Torture announced on November 21, 2008, that China "should immediately conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims that some Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to torture and used for organ transplants and take measures, as appropriate, to ensure that those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and punished."
_____________________
Ethan Gutmann, book author and journalist, has investigated on the allegations of unethical organ harvesting practices in China and has published his independent report in the Weekly Standard in the November 24, 2008 edition. His report adds another piece of evidence to the allegations that were raised by the report of David Matas and David Kilgour.
Remarks about Organ Donation
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.
DAFOH shares the view of the WMA, TTS and other organizations that organs and tissues have to be donated freely and without coercion. Because of the restrictions in liberty in a prison environment it is unlikely that prisoners are free to make independent decisions and thus an autonomous informed consent for donation cannot be obtained. This point of view is a major factor in order to understand the illegal dimension of organ harvesting in China.
DAFOH is calling on all medical doctors and transplant professionals around the world to join us in demanding an unfettered access into Chinese detention facilities, prisons and hospitals and in demanding an independent investigation of the organ harvesting practices in China.
