Attendance: 30 Members: 23 (of 47) 49% Guests: 7
Speaker: Sophie Chen and Amy Yan Topic: Forced Organ Harvesting. What is it and what can we do about it?
Our speakers tonight were Amy Yan and Sophie Chen. They are both members of the End Forced Organ Harvesting Rotary Satellite Club, that was established in the USA on 15 August 2022. Members of the club come from Germany, England, Sweden, Australia, Malaysia, France, Canada, Denmark and the USA.
The club name says it all. Forced organ harvesting means removing organs from a person without their prior, free and voluntary consent. According to United Nations reports, North Africa and the Middle East have the highest share of detected victims, followed by Europe and Asia.
The Australian institute End Transplant Abuse in China, is a coalition of international lawyers, medical professionals, researchers and human rights advocates dedicated to ending forced organ harvesting in China. The journalist Jan Jekielek started researching in 2006 when he heard rumours about a secret facility being set up in Sujiatun, Shenyang, China. Both say organ removal without consent is not just isolated abuse, it is an organised system, almost like a business, backed by the Chinese government. Prisoners, mostly people who practice Falun Gong, but also Uyghurs, Tibetans and Christians are being killed and their organs taken to sell, basically on demand.
Today the problem is still spreading and getting worse. For example, according to a Chinese government report, by 2030 in Xinjiang province where Uyghurs live, the government will build six new human transplant institutes. A report in February 2026 by Vision Times revealed a surge in the disappearance of people under 35 in China. There are also reports that infants and children are being used as organ sources.
When we look at international human rights, it is easy to view them as distant tragedies, but the reality is forced organ harvesting is not purely a foreign affair. For according to the Commonwealth Department of Health over 1400 Australians have received a transplant. The global medical tourism platform Bookimed advised that the cost of transplant surgery in China is 40% to 60% less than USA for various organs listed on line.
We have to stop this practice. According to the United Nations, as Amy and Sophie said, North Africa and the Middle East have the highest share of detected victims, it was a little disappointing they concentrated their talk on China.