Before our Sunday church service one morning, two members of Falun Gong in Australia visited on our Rector. Falun Gong, the quasi-religious movement outlawed in China, says that thousands of their imprisoned members have been murdered and their organs taken supply a trade in transplants. The visitors asked our priest to pass some information to us—which she did.

It has been known for some time and even partly acknowledged that the organs of criminals executed in China have been take for transplants, though a new July 2006 law is purported to make this illegal.

But now reports emerge of a new horror. On 24 March 06, for example, The Washington Times reported that a Chinese journalist had uncovered a secret detention center in northern China that is being used by a hospital to harvest human organs for sale to domestic and international buyers. A Mr Jin Zhong (a pseudonym) discovered that secret medical work was being done at the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, in Shenyang, in northeastern China. An underground prison beneath the hospital is allegedly holding up to 6,000 Falun Gong members,whose organs are being systematically harvested, and sold to people, from both China and abroad, who need medical organ transplants. Mr. Jin said bodies of the prisoners were burned in the boiler room of the hospital and that boiler room workers had taken jewelry and watches from the dead and sold them. He said he has provided information about the organ harvesting to U.S. government officials, including members of Congress.

CTV.ca says that a report this month by Canadian MP David Kilgour has supported accusations that China is harvesting the vital organs of imprisoned Falun Gong dissidentd. "They take both kidneys, then the heart and the skin and the corneas and the liver, and your body is then thrown in the incinerator. . . . I don’t think anyone can have any doubt that this unbelievable practice is continuing," Kilgour said of his findings. China, of course, denies the allegations. The UN and Amnesty International are also investigating, but neither considers that it has enough solid evidence to reach the same conclusion.

The Laogai Research Foundation is a non-profit organization that compiles information about the Laogai-China’s network of forced labor camps. (The word Laogai comes from the expression Laodong Gaizao or "reform through labor".”)

The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CPIFG) has members of many faiths and none and provides a well ordered, comprehensive compilation of evidence and reports. It explain

For thousands of years, the Chinese have engaged in body, mind and spiritual practices loosely known as "qigong," whose purpose is to improve one’s health and cultivate one’s virtue. Tai chi, the martial arts and yoga emanated from this rich tradition and Lao Zi and Confucius are examples of its teachers. Falun Gong is one of these body, mind and spiritual practices. Like its kin, it consists of five gentle exercises, and meditation. Falun Gong is based on the principles of Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance. Those who practice, regularly find it to bring them better health, reduced stress, inner peace, a deepened sense of morality and a state of selflessness and inner balance.

See also: Falun Dafa, Global Rescue, Uphold Justice and Falun Gong Human Rights.

I would find this practice unsatisfactory as a religion, but as a form of meditation and exercise it seems harmless enough and probably beneficial. I have no idea whether Falun Gong could be obssesive or what we have come to call a cult. I am a registered organ donor. I am glad that when, in God’s good time, I am dead, others may benefit from the use of my body.

What is certain is that, if the allegations about organ harvesting in China are even partly true, they point to a new and especially horrible evil.