In 2001, Huagui Li was arrested in southern China for handing out banned literature.
For that crime, she could have become one of thousands of Chinese reportedly rounded up every year and killed for their organs.
She says she was tortured repeatedly at a women's labor camp, and one day with about 500 other detainees, was taken to a hospital for a physical examination that included extensive medical tests.
Her high blood pressure probably saved her life, she says. It made her ineligible to become an organ donor. Her jailers later released her.
Li, 62, a mathematics teacher for 30 years in China, now lives with her son and daughter-in-law in Missouri.
As transplant lists grow longer, more Americans are traveling to China for organs. The trend alarms ethicists and U.S. doctors concerned about the human rights of donors and the health and safety of recipients.
China has long depended on executed prisoners for organs. Now, human rights groups and others say the communist government is harvesting organs from living prisoners, targeting followers of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline which Li practices.
Li's daughter-in-law, Yi Liu, translated for her as she told her story last week at the Ethical Society of St. Louis.
"As we speak now," she said, bursting into tears, "somewhere on the other side of the Earth, someone is put on a table and their organs are being removed."
Falun Gong is grounded in the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. It incorporates slow-motion exercise and meditation. Li was arrested for distributing pamphlets about the group, which was banned in China in 1999.
She says all of the women rounded up that day at the camp were followers of Falun Gong. She was later released after renouncing the practice, she said.
It's unclear how many Americans go overseas for transplants, but anecdotal reports indicate the numbers are rising.
As of last Friday, almost 93,000 Americans were waiting for an organ transplant. During the first five months of this year, about 12,000 transplants were performed in the United States.
Dr. Jeffrey Crippin, president of the American Society of Transplantation, said fear of dying on the waiting list is leading to "desperate measures by desperate people." Crippin is medical director of the liver transplant program at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
| • | Organ trade in China raises alarm over human rights
Kansas City Star, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006 Byline: Deborah L. Shelton, St. Louis Post-Dispatch |
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