Organ harvesting documentary draws full house

Prominent doctors and politicians have vowed to work towards a proposal to outlaw organ touring to China.

The practice, which sees people seek an organ transplant from non-voluntary Chinese donors, is said to be common practice there.

Auckland kidney specialist Dr Ian Dittmer said he had seen the results – which could often be life-threatening.

“It’s not common practice in New Zealand – maybe once a year – but I have seen patients,” he explained.

“The main issue about substandard is that these patients rarely come back with adequate information about the transplant procedure and the immunological work-up that was performed.

“There also numerous reports from around the world of patients returning with infections and worst of getting organs from donors infected with various viruses like hepatitis etc.

“But there’s no question that this is happening by the tens of thousands in China.”

Dr Dittmer, transplant nephrologist and renal clinical director at Auckland City Hospital, made his comments after the Auckland premiere of Hard to Believe, a documentary revealing evidence of state-sanctioned organ harvesting from living prisoners in China. Many were political prisoners of the Falun Gong movement.

Officially, China says the organs come from volunteer donors, but evidence shows that this can’t be true, since there is a huge discrepancy between the number of transplants and the number of registered donors.

“The thing is, that in China and Asia in general, they don’t have a history for volunteer organ donation. It’s a cultural thing. They won’t declare people dead until the heart stops, they don’t do brain dead as we do. Also it is tradition that people get buried intact.” Dr Dittmer explained.

The film, by director Ken Stone, screened on Wednesday night at the Academy Cinema. It was followed by a question and answer session with a panel comprising human rights lawyer Kerry Gore and Auckland Councillor Dr Cathy Casey, as well as human rights investigator, and author Ethan Gutmann who appeared live on Skype. Mr Gutmann was part of the investigation.

Most of the questions or comments were from concerned citizens, who wanted to know if New Zealand had any part in the international organ trade, or what they could do to help end this practice.

The cinema was completely sold out for the screening of this award-winning movie.

“This has been a huge success, especially considering that we only had two weeks to advertise,” said Margo MacVicar, the New Zealand representative of the film.

According to Organ Donation New Zealand, more than 550 New Zealanders are on a transplant waiting list with 450 of these waiting for a kidney. People waiting for a heart, lungs or liver, may die without a successful transplant.

The film premiered in the United States in July. The United States Congress has since passed a bill condemning the practice of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting in China.

Present at the screening were also Falun Gong news media Epoch Times, and NTDTV.

Similar screenings will be held in most major NZ cities in the following weeks, before hitting the mainstream cinemas later this year.