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Report on forced organ harvesting in China

chinatribunal.com

31–40 of 199 posts

Re: Report on forced organ harvesting in China

#31

Shortcut link to officers of the organization: https://chinatribunal.com/who-we-are/

The China Tribunal has been initiated by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), an international not for profit organisation, with headquarters in Australia and National Committees in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. ETAC is a coalition of lawyers, academics, ethicists, medical professionals, researchers and human rights advocates dedicated to ending forced organ harvesting (a form of organ trafficking) in China.

https://chinatribunal.com/about-etac/

Susie Hughes Executive Director, Co-Founder

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susie-hughes-904288119/?original...

Re: Report on forced organ harvesting in China

#32

This is a textbook thought experiment in utilitarianism, carried to its logical conclusion. Kill one person, save eight. We might not like it, we might consider it abhorrent, it might contravene international human rights law, but we can't argue that it's senseless.

It's not really utilitarianism at all. There is nothing in utilitarianism that says round up some undesirable group and kill them so a few wealthy people might get organs so they can live. The greatest good for the greatest number of people. What is the consequence of these actions, well first murder. That leads to no happiness for the murdered, their families and loved ones. The people receiving the results of that murder, when aware that they are culpable in murder and should probably be imprisoned for it, would not be very happy with the consequences. So no this is not utilitarianism. It's completely immoral and shows the sort of moral turpitude of that situation.

Re: Report on forced organ harvesting in China

#35
There is something brilliant about using a group of people who intentionally keep their organs in the best possible condition (Falun Gong does exercise, avoids alcohol, smoking, and some foods, etc.) as your oppressed-minority-live-organ-banks.

OTOH, I think the only reason they were hated was due to being popular and somehow offending or scaring someone in power. They were tolerated or even supported for a long time and then suddenly The Enemy.

The Falun Gong repression is probably one of the greatest examples of evil in the world today.

Re: Report on forced organ harvesting in China

#37

If you're going to potentially violate human rights and set up incentives to murder people for profit, saving lives like this is the best reason to do it. The long waiting lists for organs in the US show that our choice is a tradeoff, not a best practice. Insofar as our system is caused by squeamishness and the desire to feel morally pure, it is harming people unnecessarily too.

Not that it makes a moral difference, but the victims aren't all hardened criminals. They are political dissidents, people who follow the wrong religion, and racial minorities.

Most of the greatest mass atrocities in world history have been framed as a "tradeoff". Destroying some lives to save others isn't a functioning society, it's a living nightmare.

Re: Report on forced organ harvesting in China

#38

> While extracting the liver and kidneys from an executed victim who had been shot in the head and dumped by the side of a road, Tohti made a horrifying discovery. > "I started cutting down the middle and then he started struggling and I knew then that he was still alive, but he was too weak to resist me, " Tohti told The Telegraph. What the actual fuck.

Harvested Alive (2017): https://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/akbaxf/harve...

Re: Report on forced organ harvesting in China

#39

If you're going to potentially violate human rights and set up incentives to murder people for profit, saving lives like this is the best reason to do it. The long waiting lists for organs in the US show that our choice is a tradeoff, not a best practice. Insofar as our system is caused by squeamishness and the desire to feel morally pure, it is harming people unnecessarily too.

[deleted]

Re: Report on forced organ harvesting in China

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other nations could do less drastic things though. Sanctions would be an example.

But they’re not willing to give up access to cheap labor and environmental standards for their manufacturing and waste removal desires.

A strange thought: maybe the somewhat-global trend among Western powers toward political parties attempting to foment a climate of populist nationalism, is really an attempt to make people more willing to sacrifice profit margins to move manufacturing “back home”, such that China can actually be faced on level ground.

I feel like our politicians have maybe decided that voters are too smart for a sudden switch to “China bad, Chinese people bad, hate them, cut ties with them” rhetoric (as has usually historically happened in the run-up to a declaration of war), so instead they’ve just dropped the specific context of who is supposed to be bad, and are kind of vague-polemic-ing about all foreigners instead, in the hopes that that’ll stir up at least some of the same effects that historical politicians were taking advantage of.

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