Promoting Ethics in Medicine

The Chinese began vivisecting prisoners at execution decades ago. When the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, organ transplantation in China began to grow exponentially with strong support and direction from the central government. The number of transplantation surgeries surged as organs became readily available on short order from incarcerated prisoners of conscience. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been committing “cold genocide” for over twenty years.

The entire world is either already aware of this travesty or has ready access to the plethora of free, online investigative and eyewitness reports, analyses, peer-reviewed journal articles and film documentaries on the “Chinese mode” of organ transplantation. Updated evidence reveals that the CCP continues to exploit and exterminate any and all groups it deems undesirable by monetizing their body parts for its bourgeoning transplant industry. Unfortunately, there are still those who choose to remain economically, scientifically and politically engaged with China.

Fortunately, there is a growing awareness of the evidence and calls for action to end China’s illicit transplantation practices. Over the last four months, students, academicians, journalists, human rights activists, attorneys, and politicians from four continents have spoken out against China’s transplant industry.

In this issue of the DAFOH newsletter, we chronicle what an Italian professional journalist, a U.K. human rights activist, a German medical school professor, a U.S. ambassador, the Portland State University newspaper, a United Kingdom independent tribunal, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the U.S. Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the U.S. states of Arkansas and Minnesota as well as the governments of Canada, Belgium, Australia, and Czechoslovakia and various individuals have said and done after learning about China’s transplant abuses.

People around the world must understand what is truly happening inside Chinese hospitals and cultivate compassion for the innocent victims of live forced organ harvesting. Each one of us must forbear and take firm and immediate actions, no matter how difficult, to stop the Chinese Communist Party from committing this egregious act of genocide.

Since 2006, evidence of all kinds has revealed that a massive state-run harvesting of organs for transplant from living prisoners of conscience has been ongoing in China for decades.

It was only after 1999 when the much larger source of organs was available from persecuted Falun Dafa practitioners did the Chinese transplant industry begin to grow exponentially. This unprecedented rise in China’s transplant industry has been meticulously documented with in-depth analyses by the China Organ Harvest Research Center meticulously detailing information about Chinese transplant hospitals, searching archived hospital websites, media reports, medical journal articles, government legislation and funding allocations as well as industry statements and policies.

Investigators making phone calls to Chinese hospitals, institutions and individuals, made under the pretense of patients or relatives of patients needing organs, have documented that prisoners of conscience, especially Falun Gong practitioners, have long been exploited as organ donors. One caller contacted approximately 80 hospitals and was often able to speak directly with transplant surgeons: “Ten hospitals admitted they use Falun Gong practitioners as organ suppliers,” he noted. “Five hospitals said they can obtain Falun Gong practitioners as organ suppliers. Fourteen hospitals admitted they use live organs from prisoners. Ten hospitals said the source of organs is a secret and they could not reveal it over the phone.”

Over the years, eyewitnesses and whistleblowers have also come forward. One in particular revealed how China’s transplant system has used barbaric organ procurement practices from the very beginning of its existence. In the 1990s, a then senior medical student witnessed the rapid skilled removal of organs from a restrained, conscious Chinese prisoner by military doctors and nurses. The horror of the event has haunted him ever since. Years later he said, “when the media began exposing the forced harvesting of organs from Falun Dafa prisoners of conscience in China, I at once understood everything. All of this is true, and forced organ harvesting already long existed in the Chinese Communist Party’s military system. It’s only that the persecution campaign against Falun Dafa provided a much larger source of organs.”

The recent surge in the persecution and incarceration of Uighur Muslims implies this group is also part of the Chinese government’s largest cash cow: their captive living organ donor pool consisting of innocent, illegally detained prisoners of conscience.

A growing body of irrefutable evidence makes it clear that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is committing cold genocide, insidiously annihilating their own citizens through gross medical malfeasance, driven by greed. If the people of the world turn a blind eye and allow this travesty to go on unbridled, who knows who the CCP will target next for exploitation?

The British Parliament, the U.K. Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China, the U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the U.S. Ambassador at Large for the Office of International Religious Freedom are all calling for an end to China’s organ harvesting practices.

Last year, the Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China was formed in the U.K. in response to numerous, credible reports of the Chinese government’s harvesting organs from living prisoners of conscience. The Tribunal was commissioned by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC).

The Tribunal’s Chair, British attorney Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, overseas a seven-member panel, including lawyers, an academician, a senior medical expert and a businessman. The panel held a hearing on April 6-7 in London with plans to publish their final judgment in mid-June. However, after the first three days of hearings last December, they were "certain, unanimously, and sure beyond reasonable doubt that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time, involving a very substantial number of victims … by state-organized or approved organizations and individuals."

In his Op-Ed in La Croix International, Benedict Rogers, deputy chairman of the U.K.'s Conservative Party Human Rights Commission and an adviser to ETAC writes “…for such an eminent panel to take the unusual step of issuing an interim judgment must surely command attention. They took their decision, they said, in the hope that it might ‘save innocents from harm.’”

Rogers noted that China’s forced organ harvesting program is “one of the most difficult human rights violations to prove because, in contrast to many other abuses, the only witnesses are the doctors, police and prison officers involved. The evidence, in a hospital operating theatre, is cleaned away with clinical efficiency.”

On March 5, British Parliamentarians tabled an Early Day Motion to address the issue of religious persecution and forced organ removal from prisoners of conscience in China. The British government will be called upon to take definitive action to eradicate the Chinese government’s forced organ harvesting practices.

An additional debate on force live organ harvesting was held by the U.K. Parliament on March 26 to further raise awareness of this issue. British MP Fiona Bruce, chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, described China’s forced organ harvesting practices as "a crime against humanity and … potentially nothing less than a 21st century genocide" adding, "Will we once again hear the phrase 'never again' spoken with regret when eventually the truth comes out? It is not the case that nothing can be done … It cries out to be addressed. Those who fail to do so will one day be held to account.”

In its yearly Country Reports on Human Rights released on March 13, the U.S. Department of State, for the very first time, identified the issue of organ harvesting in China by stating, “Some activists and organizations continue to accuse the government of involuntarily harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, especially members of Falun Gong.”  In an interview with The Epoch Times, David Matas, co-author of Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter, noted that the States Department’s reference is an important acknowledgment and indicator of the seriousness with which the evidence regarding organ harvesting is taken.

Matas further notes that “there is an implicit, albeit belated link [in the State Department’s report] to the House of Representative’s June 2016 resolution calling for an investigation by the Department of State.” House Resolution 343, passed unanimously by the U.S. House of Representatives, "expressing concern regarding persistent and credible reports of systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the People's Republic of China, including from large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups.” Perhaps the State Department is starting to take the action specifically requested by the U.S. Congress three years ago.

David Kilgour, former Canadian parliamentarian and co-author of Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter, suggested that “relinking human rights with trade talks, applying the Magnitsky Act to surgeons and others participating in organ abuse, and warning U.S. universities about the risk of training surgeons from China, and so on, would all help.”

Erping Zhang, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Center, pointed out that “China is the only country on earth that spends more money on domestic security than its national defense. The U.S. must stand firm on its moral grounds and protect human rights around the world, China in particular.”

One week before the Department of State’s report was released, Ambassador at Large for the Office of International Religious Freedom in the U.S. Department State Sam Brownback delivered a speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong calling on Beijing to end all forms of religious persecution in China. “Since 1999, the United States has designated China as a country of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998,” Brownback said. Particular concern is the most serious category for violators of religious freedom. Addressing China’s forced organ harvesting practices, he said, “Data from brave persistent researchers raise concerning questions regarding the organ transplantation system in China, with voluntary donations unable to meet the demand. This is a truly horrifying prospect.”

In its annual report released on April 29, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) identified China as one of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom and explains how the Chinese government has enacted a campaign to co-opt faith-based practices that are not state-sanctioned and remain outside of the Chinese regime’s control.

In addition, the report notes that in 2018, “human rights advocates, medical professionals, and investigative journalists presented additional evidence that the practice [of organ harvesting] continued on a significant scale.” USCIRF Commissioner Gary L. Bauer pointed out that since China is a rising power with global influence, its level of basic human rights violation is “really deeply disturbing.”

USCIRF offered several recommendations to the U.S. government for ending China’s transplantation crimes, including discussions with China on religious liberty and human rights as well as issuing sanctions against individuals in China responsible for persecution campaigns against religious groups.

Belgium Passes Law to Penalize Medical Tourism for Organ Transplants

On April 25, Belgium’s primary legislative body passed a new bill that would punish all parties involved in the buying and selling of human organs for commercial purposes. The regulations stipulate that the organ seller and recipient, as well as any middlemen, doctors who were consulted, or other medical workers who participated in the sale of organs for profit, will be punished under the law.

In cases where the transplant procedure resulted in the death of the donor, those involved face up to 20 years imprisonment and a 1.2 million euro fine. If an organized criminal group is involved in such trade, all individuals in the group can be punished under the law.

All Belgian citizens will be prohibited from purchasing organs, regardless of where the transaction took place, effectively banning medical tourism for organ transplants.

The bill, introduced by Representatives Valerie Van Peel and Vincent Van Peteghem, will next move to the Senate, after which the King will sign it into law.

Canadian MPs Give Unanimous Support to Bill Combatting International Organ Trafficking

On April 30, 2019, Canadian members of Parliament unanimously gave their final approval to Bill S-240 which makes it illegal for Canadians to get organs abroad without the consent of the donor and denies admission into Canada to those involved in forced organ harvesting anywhere in the world. The bill, which enjoys support from all parties as well as both chambers of Parliament, will now go back to the Senate for a vote on amendments from the lower house before it can be signed into law.

Winnipeg-based international human rights lawyer David Matas told Canadian lawmakers that countries, such as Israel and Taiwan, that have enacted similar legislation have seen dramatic improvements in preventing their citizens from getting organs in China. Other countries that have passed similar legislation into law include Spain, Italy, and Norway.

MP Garnett Genuis, sponsor of Bill S-240 in the House of Commons, said, “These provisions don’t solve the whole issue, and there is more work to be done, but it formally puts Canada on the right side of this and ends any possibility of Canadian involvement.” He also voiced his hope that the bill will pass in this session of Parliament “so that we can look our children in the eyes and tell them that we didn’t just talk about ideas, but we actually got good things done.”

Australian State MP Calls on Victoria to Crack Down on Human Organ Trafficking

In February 2019, Bernie Finn, member of the Victorian Parliament in Australia, called on the attorney general to cooperate with the federal government to stop the practice of human organ trafficking, citing a report by the Human Rights Sub-Committee for the inquiry into human organ trafficking and organ transplant tourism.

The report, entitled “Compassion, Not Commerce: An inquiry into human organ trafficking and organ transplant tourism,” was released Dec. 3, 2018. In his speech to Parliament, Finn said that three of the report’s twelve recommendations could be applied in Victoria.

• Recommendation 5 requests mandatory reporting protocols by medical doctors who care for patients suspected to have received a commercial transplant.
• Recommendation 6 asks the Australian Government to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs and create legislation against the illegal removal of human organs from living or deceased donors.
• Recommendation 12 recommends the Australian Government ensure that those importing human tissue into Australia for commercial purposes produce verifiable documentation of the consent of the donor or their next-of-kin.

Czech Lawmakers Finalizing Draft Amendment to Organ Transplant Law

A new amendment to existing organ transplant law was first proposed by Czech Senator Marek Hilser and MP Mikulas Peksa in response to a public Senate hearing held last November about forced organ harvesting from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in China for use in transplantation surgeries.

On March 20, the Czech Senate passed a resolution calling on “the Chinese regime to stop its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs; to release all prisoners of conscience; and to abide by international human rights conventions.”

The new law amendment, which has taken six months to prepare, will allow the prosecution of persons who obtain organs transplanted from involuntary donors and identify those countries, particularly China, with unethical organ transplantation practices.

Continuing to educate the public, Senator Hilser held a debate on May 28th about China, foreign policy and hosted a showing of "Human Harvest", an award-winning documentary about human organ trafficking in China.

Arkansas Senate Passes Resolution Against Organ Harvesting

On February 28, 2019, the Arkansas Senate unanimously passed Resolution SR 14  “to encourage the United States Congress and the Arkansas Congressional Delegation to work to end organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in the People's Republic of China.” The Senate resolution follows Arkansas House Resolution 1022 which was passed on February 18th.

The Senate resolution calls upon the Chinese government to “immediately end the practice of organ harvesting from all prisoners and prisoners of conscience.” It goes on to state that “organ tourism to China should not be shielded by medical confidentiality, but openly monitored” and that “no nation should allow its 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.”

SR 14 calls for the prosecution of those found to have engaged in unethical practices and the denial of entry to perpetrators involved in transplant abuses. Additionally, the medical community of Arkansas is encouraged “to engage in educating colleagues and residents of Arkansas about the risks of travel to China for organ transplants to help prevent Arkansas residents from unwittingly becoming involved in murder in the form of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience.”

Minnesota Legislators Continue to Raise Awareness Against Forced Organ Harvesting in China

The Minnesota House and Senate, after passing Resolution SF 2090 in 2016, continue to raise awareness of the Chinese government’s harvesting of organs from prisoners, especially from religious minorities such as the Falun Gong, that drives China’s booming transplant industry.

A letter signed by 50 of the state’s legislators was recently sent to the Minnesota Medical Association asking that they take a position on the practice of forced organ harvesting and about patients from Minnesota who may travel to China for organs. Medical professionals are also urged to raise awareness by speaking out and developing plans to counter China’ current transplant procedures.

Representative Nels Pierson (R-Stewartville) added, “My father was a heart transplant recipient, so I know firsthand the importance of focusing our efforts on supporting our citizens in need of transplants. But forced organ harvesting is an egregious practice, and we must fight to stop it and protect the rights of those who are subjected to this unethical treatment."

David Beyda, MD, Chairman of the Department of Bioethics and Medical Humanism and Director of the Global Health Program at the University of Arizona College, hosted a seminar on forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China on April 19, 2019.

After introducing the topic with the documentary "Human Harvest," Mr. W. Liu, a chemical engineer and Falun Gong practitioner now living in the United States, told of being blood tested, along with about 40 other Falun Gong practitioners while he was incarcerated in a Chinese jail for his spiritual beliefs. His criminal cellmate told Mr. Liu that convicts like himself, who were not Falun Gong practitioners, were never blood tested.

Torsten Trey, MD, PhD, Executive Director of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), presented data that reveal significant discrepancies in officially reported transplant surgeries and organ donor numbers, creating patterns found nowhere in the rest of the world. The only plausible explanation is that systematic forced organ harvesting, primarily of Falun Gong practitioners, has been going on for two decades. Trey described China’s killing of innocent people as a “cold genocide,” subtle, unseen and normalized in Chinese society, under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. Never before in history have victims of a genocide been exploited for their organs and monetized into a profitable business and neither have transplant recipients become the beneficiaries of murder.

Gilcrease, MD, assistant professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine and DAFOH deputy director, pointed out that academic leaders should not avoid the transplant abuse being perpetrated in China. Sacrificing ethical standards in medicine in exchange for engagement with China should be a concern for every medical professional and academician in the United States. Both American medical institutions that train Chinese surgeons who then return home to participate in unethical organ procurement practices and American citizens who travel to China to buy organs obtained through unethical acts are at risk of becoming complicit to genocide.

Hewitt, MD, transplant surgeon at the Mayo Clinic Hospital Phoenix and assistant professor of surgery at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, urged all American surgeons to act responsibly regarding forced organ harvesting. He expressed disappointment that so little has been done over the last decade to change the abusive practice, adding that the killing of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience for their organs is so egregious and so unique that simply calling it a genocide does not encompass the scope and gravity of forced organ harvesting.

Event host Dr. Beyda said, “We hope to make individuals who are considering going overseas for an organ transplant to be aware of the risks they are taking, and to be mindful of what happens to those from whom the organ is being taken.”

International human rights lawyer David Matas reminded the audience of the 2018 Arizona House Concurrent Memorial 2004  which “urg[es] the United States Congress and the Arizona medical community to take action against state-sanctioned organ transplant practices in China.” He explained how human rights abuses in China affect the people of Arizona and listed steps they can take to help stop this genocide. The first action to be taken, he noted, would be to close all Confucius Institutes at Arizona educational institutions. Confucius Institutes are partially funded by Hanban (the Chinese Ministry of Education) and promulgate Chinese Communist Party ideology and policy at host institutions. Second, Arizona should ban the Bodies Revealed exhibit, now at OdySea in Scottsdale, and any other plastination exhibit from ever being hosted in the state. There are growing global concerns that many of the plastinated corpses in these exhibits are actually from Chinese prisoners, possibly Falun Gong practitioners, who have not willfully consented to the use of their bodies.

In September 2014, China’s President Xi Jinping outlined his “magic weapons” program that includes the People’s Liberation Army, the use of propaganda, and United Front tactics. In a series of articles, Steven W. Moshe, President of the Population Research Institute, proposes that China also has a "fourth magic weapon", namely, a program to collect the DNA from all Chinese citizens as well as DNA from other peoples around the world. Issued on Nov. 7, 2017, China’s national DNA collection project focused initially on millions of men. The directive described how officials should collect, analyze, and store Y-chromosome DNA data and create genealogical trees for each family in their communities.

During 2016 and 2017, the Chinese government mandated the collection of biometric data from nearly 36 million people, the entire minority population of Muslim Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Xingjian province. On Dec. 26, 2017, hundreds of male students in Qianwei County, Sichuan Province, home to a significant Yi minority, were ordered to provide saliva specimens. Human rights attorneys, people who hold religious or spiritual beliefs, dissidents, leading internet commentators, and the poorest members of society were specifically targeted. Additionally, all policemen, detectives, and government personnel involved in health and social programs are required to provide DNA samples.

As a result of ongoing DNA collection efforts, an estimated 100 million DNA samples have been collected, analyzed, and added to the Chinese government’s huge database. By comparison, U.S. law enforcement agencies currently have DNA specimens from approximately 16 million persons, and the database is used exclusively for fighting crime.

China is assembling a huge DNA database for people outside of China as well, including millions of Americans. Dominance in biotechnology is explicitly called for in the ‘Made in China 2025’ master plan to acquire cutting-edge biotechnology and genomic data by any means possible. This involves the direct purchase of American biotech companies by Chinese state-owned or state-funded entities as well as by espionage and state-directed cyberattacks.

There are at least 23 companies associated with China currently accredited in the U.S. to perform molecular diagnostics or other genetic testing, including whole genome sequencing. Some hospitals, clinics, and commercial DNA testing companies in the U.S. now routinely send DNA samples to China to be analyzed. More than 12 million Americans have mailed a sample of their DNA to commercial DNA testing companies for ancestral or other informational purposes.

Any privacy protocols that may have been contractually promised by Chinese controlled companies to their American partners are worthless as the Chinese regime can access at will all data stored on Chinese servers owned by private companies.

The number of Chinese state-directed hacking attempts targeting U.S. biotech companies has dramatically increased since 2008, many of which have been successful.

How might China use the genetic information of foreign nationals?  Medical vulnerabilities of strategically important individuals could be targeted for individualized attacks. China’s biotech industry might bioengineer a virulent infectious agent made to be fatal for all races but ethnic Han Chinese.

For decades, innocent religious believers have been involuntarily tissue matched and then killed on demand for anyone willing to pay for an organ transplant. China’s totalitarian regime, which regards human life as a disposable commodity, has no moral compass. Therefore, the world needs to be wary of the motives behind the Chinese government’s “magic weapons” programs, including its gathering of genetic information.

German Bundestag public hearing about China’s unethical transplant practices

On May 8, 2019, the German Bundestag’s Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid held a public hearing on the persecution of religious minorities in China with expert testimony from NGOs, representatives of minority groups, and scholars. After the seminar, members from the three leading German political parties called for legislators to take joint action to help stop the organ harvesting atrocities in China.

Medical Professor from Germany details China’s organ transplant abuses

Dr. Huige Li, Professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center in Germany, detailed the history and current status of “forcible and unlawful explant of organs from targeted individuals and ethnic or religious groups” during a May interview with BITTER WINTER, a Magazine on Religious Liberty and Human Rights in China. The entire world either is aware of this travesty or has ready access to the plethora of free, online published investigative and eyewitness reports, analyses, and documentaries, yet choose to remaining economically and politically engaged with China.

Japan should not collude in China’s organ harvesting

The Japanese Diet can and should enact laws to prevent its citizens from traveling to China for organ transplants because prisoners of conscience are killed for organs. Unaware of this reality, Japanese people are lured by China’s incredibly short waiting times for transplant surgery. According to this article, Japanese authorities have “setup an insurance scheme to cover transplant tourism” and, rather than taking a stand against it, or even turning a blind eye, they are “using tax revenue to endorse it.”

International human rights lawyer David Matas outlines what Japan can do about OH

Matas asserts that Japan should follow the lead of Israel and Taiwan who fine or imprison transplant tourists rather than provide them health insurance coverage. He also suggested that medical providers be required to report anyone involved in transplant tourism and that Japanese medical organizations should not collaborate on research with Chinese transplant hospitals. Matas said the Japanese government should enact legislation similar to the US Magnitsky Act and freeze the assets of high-level Chinese authorities known to be involved in forced organ harvesting. Matas’ final suggestion was that Japan sign the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs. Hideaki Kase, Chairman of the SGM Network in Japan said, “We need to request the Diet to investigate how much transplant tourism is going on…After that we want to adopt measures to prohibit transplant tourism.”

China reportedly manipulating data on its transplantation practices 

SocArXiv published a report on January 31 with information from China’ organ transplantation infrastructure from the years 2010 and 2018. The report revealed that there was recurrent falsification and manipulation of datasets for the country’s transplantation procedures. Senior Research Analyst for East Asia at Freedom House Sarah Cook reiterated what investigators have been saying for decades:  Hospital bed capacities and the number of resources required to conduct transplants in the country did not reflect the government’s claim that only 10,000 transplants are being conducted annually.

The darkest story of the 21st century comes from Chinese hospitals

First-hand, direct evidence of unethical organ transplant practices in China was first presented by Dr. Wang Guoqi at a U.S. Congressional hearing in 2001. IFL Science reporter accurately concludes, “If you received an organ transplant in China in the past few decades, there’s a strong chance it was harvested from an executed prisoner against their will.”

Portland State newspaper: China accused of continuing to illegally harvest organs

PSU Vanguard, a student-run newspaper, chronicles international accusations of China’s unethical practice of harvesting organs from non-consenting members of marginalized groups such as the Falun Gong, Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Christians. Spain, Italy, Israel and Taiwan all have restricted travel to China for transplant surgeries. The UK and others appear to be following suit.

“Reunion” exposes buried secrets of the Chinese Communist Party

This new thriller from Peabody Award-winning director Leon Lee, exposes dark and buried secrets of the corrupt Chinese Communist Party. Through progressive and quiet narration, the short film asserts that many of the bodies used in plastination exhibits showcased in major cities around the world, including the United States, are actually corpses of prisoners of conscience being monetized by the Chinese regime.

Panda awareness art for Falun Gong  

Since 2015, Czech artist Barbora Balkova has created art highlighting the absurd contrast between how the Chinese protect their national symbol, the panda bear, while ignoring human rights violations against their fellow human citizens. Balkova’s art, which depicts panda bears bodies shockingly mutilated, much like the bodies of the victims of illegal organ harvesting, has been garnering international attention at successful exhibits. Art is a powerful medium that has the ability to transcend nationalities and governments and reach people at the deepest levels of humanity.