UK Councillor: “The WHO must intervene … to see that this illegal and unethical practice is halted”

The following letter was written by Councillor Mark Hill to a Falun Gong practitioner. The letter that Councillor Hill wrote to the World Health Organisation is below it.

Monday 12th June 2006

Thank you for writing to me about the practice of organ harvesting from prisoners in China. I have been aware of the international controversy on this issue, and I thank you for bringing the petition to my attention. I have signed it this morning, joining the names of many of my Green Party colleagues.

I have also written my own letter to the World Health Organisation’s Ethics Council asking them to investigate the issuer – I enclose a copy of this letter and have sent a further copy to the Friends of Falun Gong.

I am a firm believer in the role of international institutions to protect human rights and promote ethics in governments worldwide. This is exactly the sort of illegal and inhumane practice that they should be addressing.

Please let me know if there are any other ways in which I may support the campaign.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr. Mark Hill
Green Party Councillor for Fishergate Ward

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Professor Alexander Capron
Director, Dept. of Ethics
World Health Organisation

Dear Professor Capron

I am writing to support the call of the British Transplantation Society Ethics Committee for an international investigation into organ harvesting in China.

Like many, I have been shocked by stories coming out of China of organ matching and transplant, without consent, from condemned prisoners. The abuses appear particularly to centre on members of the persecuted Falun Gong sect. This has been widely documented by Amnesty International and many journalists working in China.

The WHO must intervene and do all in its power to see that this illegal and unethical practice is halted.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Hill