Bill Text: TX HR10 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Condemning China's practice of involuntary organ harvesting.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 10-3)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-04-22 - Reported favorably as substituted [HR10 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-HR10-Introduced.html
| 87R3077 BPG-D | ||
| By: Shaheen | H.R. No. 10 | |
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| WHEREAS, For the better part of two decades, China's | ||
| communist regime has been engaged in the vile practice of forcibly | ||
| removing human organs for transplant; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In June 2019, the independent China Tribunal | ||
| announced its finding that China's regime had for decades practiced | ||
| systematic forced organ removal from prisoners of conscience; it is | ||
| believed that organs have been harvested from hundreds of thousands | ||
| of incarcerated people, mainly Falun Gong practitioners, but | ||
| possibly also Tibetan Buddhists, House Church Christians, and | ||
| members of the Uyghur Muslim ethnic minority; and | ||
| WHEREAS, China has welcomed an influx of "transplant | ||
| tourism," whereby individuals critically in need of transplants pay | ||
| thousands of dollars for one of 60,000 to 90,000 transplant | ||
| surgeries conducted each year; the number of transplants far | ||
| exceeds the number of voluntary organ donations in the country; | ||
| moreover, Chinese hospitals are able to schedule transplants of | ||
| major organs within two weeks, suggesting nefarious foreknowledge | ||
| regarding the "donation" of these organs; by contrast, America's | ||
| highly developed organ donation system requires that recipients be | ||
| placed on a carefully curated list to await the transplant of an | ||
| organ; the timing of these transplants is not predictable, as an | ||
| organ may not be available for hundreds of days, or in time for a | ||
| specific patient; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Falun Gong, a spiritual practice centered on the | ||
| values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, became | ||
| immensely popular in the 1990s; in July 1999, the Chinese Communist | ||
| Party launched an intensive, nationwide persecution designed to | ||
| eradicate the spiritual practice; Freedom House reported in 2015 | ||
| that Falun Gong practitioners are the primary victims of forced | ||
| organ removal and face an elevated risk of dying or being killed in | ||
| custody; and | ||
| WHEREAS, On July 20, 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo | ||
| denounced 21 years of persecution of Falun Gong by China's | ||
| communist regime, declaring in a press statement: "We call on the | ||
| PRC government to immediately end its depraved abuse and | ||
| mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners, release those imprisoned | ||
| due to their beliefs, [. . .] and address the whereabouts of | ||
| missing practitioners. Twenty-one years of persecution of Falun | ||
| Gong practitioners is far too long, and it must end"; and | ||
| WHEREAS, United Nations Special Rapporteurs have called on | ||
| the Chinese government to account for the sources of organs used in | ||
| transplant practices, and the World Medical Association, the | ||
| American Society of Transplantation, and the Transplantation | ||
| Society have all called for sanctions on Chinese medical | ||
| authorities; resolutions condemning organ harvesting from | ||
| prisoners of conscience have been adopted by the parliaments of | ||
| Canada and the European Union, as well as by the Foreign Affairs | ||
| Committee of the United States House of Representatives, and it is | ||
| important to join the international outcry against this major | ||
| violation of human rights; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 87th Texas | ||
| Legislature hereby strongly condemn China's practice of | ||
| involuntary organ harvesting; and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas House of Representatives encourage | ||
| the medical community to educate Texans about the risks of travel to | ||
| China for organ transplants to help prevent Texas residents from | ||
| unwittingly becoming involved in murder in the form of forced organ | ||
| harvesting from prisoners of conscience; and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas House of Representatives | ||
| respectfully urge the United States Congress and the president of | ||
| the United States to pass laws and adopt measures prohibiting | ||
| collaboration between U.S. medical and pharmaceutical companies | ||
| and any Chinese counterparts linked with forced organ harvesting, | ||
| banning entry into the United States of those who have participated | ||
| in unethical removal of human tissues and organs, and providing for | ||
| the prosecution of such individuals. | ||
