Hebei Woman Dies Suddenly While in Custody—Organs Extracted

A 64-year-old woman who died suddenly, under suspicious circumstances, while in custody had her internal organs extracted by authorities.

Ms. Ma Guilan was arrested on July 4, 2018 for talking to people about Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999.

She was sent to Qinhuangdao City Detention Centre, where news broke on September 17 that she had suddenly fallen ill at around 6:00 a.m. one morning, and died hours after being taken to the Qinhuangdao Police Hospital at around 8:00 a.m.

According to insiders, several government agents with unknown identities came to the hospital, cut open her abdomen and removed her internal organs for some alleged examinations. It wasn't clear where they were taking her organs.

Ms. Ma's family members declined to provide information regarding her case to the Minghui correspondent, likely fearing government retaliation. It wasn't clear whether they knew about her organs being taken.

One month before Ms. Ma's mysterious death, two other detainees (who have been confirmed to be non-Falun Gong practitioners) also died under suspicious conditions.

Some local Falun Gong practitioners suspect that the three suspicious deaths may have had something to do with China's state-sanctioned organ harvesting, especially with Ms. Ma's organs confirmed to have been removed.

According to various reports released in recent years, hospitals throughout China are still performing a large number of on-demand organ transplants, despite lack of established organ donation systems. Human rights researchers have concluded that most of the organs came from living, non-consenting Falun Gong practitioners, who have been vulnerably subjected to all kinds of inhumane tortures after being captured.

Following Ms. Ma's death, the detention centre went through a staff shake-up and brought in a lot of new personnel.