State legislatures in Arizona and Idaho have passed legislation that aims to combat the horrific practice of forced organ harvesting in communist China, where many prisoners of conscience have been killed for their organs to serve a lucrative transplant trade.
The Idaho bill (HO670) and the Arizona bill (HB2504) are now waiting to be signed by the governors of the two states. The legislation aims to discourage residents in both states from seeking organ transplants in China, as Chinese hospitals regularly offer alarmingly short wait times for procuring matching organs.
While it is unclear when Idaho’s Republican Gov. Brad Little and Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs will each sign their respective bills into law, Texas and Utah have already passed similar bills. The Lone Star State was the first U.S. state to take up the issue, when its law went into effect on Sept. 1, 2023.
In Idaho, the bill passed unanimously in both chambers on April 2 and April 3.
The Arizona State House passed the legislation on April 2 following a 16–14 vote. Two days later, the state’s Senate passed by a 34–25 vote.
Idaho
If enacted, Idaho’s legislation would ban health insurers from covering an organ transplant or post-transplant care performed in China or any other country known to have participated in forced organ harvesting.
Additionally, the legislation would prevent health insurers from reimbursing an organ transplant performed in Idaho, if that organ comes from China or other prohibited countries.
According to its language, Idaho’s legislation is intended to “prevent Idaho residents from unknowingly involving themselves in forced organ harvesting.”
“This bill is truly a humanitarian bill, as well as a health privacy bill,” said Idaho State Rep. Jordan Redman during a Senate committee meeting on March 19.
At the March meeting, He Hui, a practitioner of Falun Gong who lives in Boise, Idaho, spoke of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has turned China into “a top destination for organ tourism.”
“Falun Gong practitioners have been the primary victims of forced organ harvesting in China,” said Ms. He, adding that Uyghurs and other vulnerable groups have also fallen prey to the CCP’s “gruesome practice.”
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline introduced the the Chinese public in 1992 that encourages its adherents to live by the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. By 1999, the practice had become enormously popular in China, with 70 million to 100 million people having taken up the practice, according to official estimates.
The CCP, which took Falun Gong’s popularity and focus on morality as a threat to its political power, launched a nationwide persecution targeting the practice in 1999. Since then, millions have been detained inside prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated and untold numbers persecuted to death, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.
Ms. He said that her mother, a retired university professor who also attended the meeting, was a victim of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. Her mother was held in a brainwashing center for five months in 2008.
In 2019, the China Tribunal, an independent expert panel in the UK, concluded that the CCP has been forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience for years “on a substantial scale,” with Falun Gong practitioners being the “principal source” of human organs.
Another part of the Idaho legislation is banning medical and research facilities in the state from using genetic sequencing machines or software that come from foreign adversaries like China.
“So the largest genetic sequencing manufacturer is a Chinese company called BGI. And the Chinese government requires BGI to share the DNA they acquire with the Chinese government,” said Idaho State Sen. Brian Lenny at the March committee meeting. “So you can imagine if we’re using that equipment in America, and then they go back and the Chinese government says, ‘Let me see what you got.’”
“It protects Idahoans’ DNA from being stolen and collected by the Chinese government and Chinese military,” Mr. Lenny added.
Arizona
HB2504, officially called the Arizona End Organ Harvesting Act, would allow insurers and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to limit coverage to a subscriber for a human organ transplant or post-transplant care if the transplant operations happen in China or Hong Kong.
The Arizona legislation would also limit insurance coverage for genetic sequencing if the device doing the operation is manufactured by a company domiciled in foreign adversaries such as China.
“We want to make sure that we send the message. I know Congress is doing something similar right now,” said Arizona State Rep. Leo Biasiucci during a Senate committee event on March 18. “Send a message to the rest of the country and the world that we’re not going to participate in this heinous act.”
In March 2023, the House passed a landmark bill (H.R.1154) that would sanction anyone involved in forced organ harvesting and require annual government reporting on such activities taking place in foreign countries. The Senate version of the legislation (S.761) has not advanced out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since it was introduced in 2023.
Diana Molovinsky, a member of the Phoenix Falun Dafa Association, called the CCP’s crimes of forced organ harvesting a “medical genocide,” during the March committee event.
“Right now in Arizona, we have several renowned transplant training programs that collaborate and train students from all over the world,” Ms. Molovinsky said. “A bill like HB2504 would be a powerful tool to help our doctors and programs refrain from being complicit in training and collaborating with the Chinese transplant centers that are known for being part of this medical genocide.”
Xu Zhuoyun, who lives in Tucson, Arizona, spoke at the committee event about how he and his father are both Falun Gong practitioners, but that his father, Xu Yongqing, is currently imprisoned in China for his beliefs. Mr. Xu expressed fears his father, too, could become a victim of forced organ harvesting by the CCP.
“In November 2017, he was unjustly sentenced to two years in prison for simply mailing a few letters containing materials that shed light on the persecution,” Mr. Xu said. “During his imprisonment, he was subjected to physical examinations, including a blood test, but other inmates weren’t.”
Mr. Xu said that the purpose of the physical examination being done on his father was for organ matching. Practitioners of Falun Gong don’t smoke or drink, making them prime candidates for forced organ harvesting.
“In late 2021, he was arrested again and sentenced to four years in prison. He’s still in prison today,” Mr. Xu said. “My family is very worried about his safety. So many Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death in China, including those whose organs were harvested while they were still alive. My father could become such a victim someday.”
He expressed hope that HB2504 could become law.
“The more people who are aware of atrocities occurring in China, the more we can help prevent further tragedies and dissuade individuals, including Arizona patients, from seeking organ transplants in China.”
From The Epoch Times