Florida Senate - 2022                                    SM 1108
       
       
        
       By Senator Baxley
       
       
       
       
       
       12-01204-22                                           20221108__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the President and Congress of the United
    3         States, urging the President and Congress to condemn
    4         the People’s Republic of China for its practice of
    5         forcibly removing human organs for transplant and to
    6         adopt certain legislation and policies that hold China
    7         accountable for such human rights violations.
    8  
    9         WHEREAS, for nearly two decades, the communist regime of
   10  the People’s Republic of China has engaged in the vile practice
   11  of forcibly removing human organs for transplant, and
   12         WHEREAS, on June 17, 2019, the Independent Tribunal Into
   13  Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China
   14  released its final judgment finding that China’s communist
   15  regime, for decades, has practiced systematic forced organ
   16  removal from prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong
   17  practitioners, Tibetan Buddhists, House Church Christians, and
   18  the Uyghurs, and
   19         WHEREAS, China has welcomed an influx of transplant tourism
   20  whereby individuals critically in need of transplants pay
   21  thousands of dollars for one of the 60,000 to 90,000 transplant
   22  surgeries conducted each year, with the number of transplants
   23  far exceeding the number of voluntary organ donations in the
   24  country, and
   25         WHEREAS, a transplant patient in the United States is
   26  typically placed on the waiting list for an organ that may not
   27  be available for months, Chinese hospitals schedule transplants
   28  of major organs within 2 weeks, suggesting nefarious
   29  foreknowledge regarding the circumstances surrounding the
   30  donation of these organs, and
   31         WHEREAS, in July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched
   32  an intensive, nationwide persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual
   33  practice centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and
   34  tolerance, and
   35         WHEREAS, in 2015, Freedom House, a nonprofit,
   36  nongovernmental organization, reported that Falun Gong
   37  practitioners are the primary victims of forced organ removal
   38  and face an elevated risk of dying or being killed while
   39  imprisoned, and
   40         WHEREAS, on July 20, 2020, then-Secretary of State Michael
   41  R. Pompeo denounced 21 years of persecution of Falun Gong
   42  practitioners by China’s communist regime, and
   43         WHEREAS, the United Nations Committee Against Torture and
   44  the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
   45  Degrading Treatment or Punishment have called on the Chinese
   46  government to account for the sources of organs used in its
   47  transplant practices, and
   48         WHEREAS, several organizations have called for the
   49  imposition of sanctions on Chinese medical authorities for
   50  China’s transplant practices, and
   51         WHEREAS, the parliaments of Canada and the European Union,
   52  as well as the United States House of Representatives Committee
   53  on Foreign Affairs, have adopted resolutions condemning organ
   54  harvesting from prisoners of conscience, and
   55         WHEREAS, it is imperative to join the international outcry
   56  against this major violation of human rights by the People’s
   57  Republic of China, NOW, THEREFORE,
   58  
   59  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   60  
   61         That the President and Congress of the United States are
   62  urged to condemn the People’s Republic of China for its practice
   63  of forcibly removing human organs for transplant and to adopt
   64  legislation and policies that prohibit collaboration between
   65  American medical and pharmaceutical companies and any Chinese
   66  counterparts linked to forced organ harvesting, that ban
   67  individuals who have participated in the unethical removal of
   68  human tissues and organs from entering the United States, and
   69  that provide for the prosecution of such individuals.
   70         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   71  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   72  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   73  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   74  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.