HomeMy WebLinkAbout060-21 (OrganHarvestingInChina) BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
RESOLUTION
TO EDUCATE FREDERICK COUNTY'S RESIDENTS AND MEDICAL
COMMUNITY ON THE RISKS OF TRAVELING TO CHINA FOR ORGAN
TRANSPLANT IN, LIGHT OF RECENT REPORTS OF STATE-SPONSORED
ORGAN HARVESTING FROM PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE.
WHEREAS, extensive and credible reports have revealed mass killing of prisoners of
conscience in the People's Republic of China from religious and ethnic minority groups,
in order to obtain organs for transplants; and
WHEREAS, The China Tribunal, an independent tribunal sitting in London chaired by
Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who was a prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia, concluded on June 18, 2019, in a unanimous determination at the
end of its yearlong hearings, that the killing of detainees in China for organ transplants
is continuing and ongoing: and,
WHEREAS, an investigative report published in June 2016 by human rights attorney
David Matas, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, David Kilgour, and
journalist Ethan Gutmann., estimated that China is performing transplants on "an
industrial-scale, state-directed organ transplantation system, controlled through
national policies and funding, and implicating both the military and civilian healthcare
systems,", as Kilgour described these practices in his speech to the European Parliament
in 2016; and,
WHEREAS, in June 2016, the United States House of Representatives unanimously
passed House Resolution 343, condemning the systemic, state-sanctioned organ
harvesting from prisoners of conscience, and
WHEREAS, there has been little media coverage of this problem, yet dozens of
Frederick County residents expressed concern to the Frederick County Board of
Supervisors; and
WHEREAS, Frederick County residents should be fully informed of the organ source in
China before they make the decision to engage in organ tourism in China; and,
WHEREAS, the Frederick County Board of Supervisors desires to assist in raising
awareness in this regard;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY the Frederick County Board of Supervisors,
that we strongly condemn the illegal and immoral organ harvesting being conducted at
the direction of and under the protection of the Government of the communist Peoples
Republic of China; and,
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the residents of and medical community serving
Frederick County and the immediate region, be informed of the inherent injustices of
the organ tourism in China, and that travel to China for organ transplants may cause
our local citizens to unwittingly become accomplices in state-sponsored forced organ
harvesting from prisoners of conscience.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Frederick County Board of Supervisors
shall provide copies of this resolution to the Frederick County delegation to the Virginia
General Assembly and the Virginia delegation to the United States Congress.
ADOPTED this 27th day of January 2021.
Charles S. DeHaven,Jr., Chairman Aye Shawn L. Graber Aye
J. Douglas McCarthy Aye Robert W. Wells Aye
Blaine P. Dunn Aye David D. Stegmaier Aye
Judith McCann-Slaughter Aye
Kris . Tier
Clerk, Board o Supervisors
County of Frederick, Virginia
Res No. 060-21