Texas has signed into law a bipartisan bill to combat the Chinese regime’s criminal practice of forced organ harvesting, making it the first U.S. state to counter the abuse through legal means.
As of Sept. 1, it will be illegal in the state for health insurance providers to fund organ transplants using organs originating from China or any other country that’s known to have involvement in the practice of forced organ harvesting. The bill (SB 1040), which was approved unanimously in both the state’s legislative chambers in May, was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 18.
Under the Chinese regime’s watch, the practice of forcibly harvesting vital organs from living individuals for profit has grown into a flourishing industry and has added to the abuse of vulnerable groups such as detained adherents of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong, a faith group with tens of millions of followers that has faced a relentless persecution campaign by Beijing since 1999.
Republican state Rep. Tom Oliverson, a primary sponsor of the legislation, praised Abbott for “allowing Texas to be the first to take a strong stand against the immoral and detestable practice of forced organ donations in China.”
“With this law, we send a strong message to Beijing that all human life is precious and worthy of protection,” he told The Epoch Times.
Oliverson recalled having met years ago with Falun Gong practitioners, who showed him websites of hospitals in China advertising to the world that live donors were standing by as the country’s medical sector looked to attract organ transplant tourists.
“I was just horrified. Just absolutely, unbelievably horrified,” he said.
While Oliverson has worked to advocate for organ transplantation ethics in the United States to make sure that people are voluntary donors, he said he has “never seen a case where somebody who was conscious, awake, and able to sign a consent on their own … was being forced to be an organ donor.”
“That just sounded like something out of a movie,” he said.
By Eva Fu
