Last year China acknowledged that two-thirds of Chinese organ donors are executed prisoners. It is trying decrease its reliance on prisoners by promoting voluntary donations. But there is still a thriving black market, as an estimated one million people need organs and only one percent receive them.

So where do the organs come from? A persecuted religious group, the Falun Gong, have alleged that their imprisoned followers have been quarried for their organs. Last year two Canadian human rights lobbyists, one a former member of parliament, published a book, Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, which concluded that the allegations were true.

Now the Falun Gong – which the government calls an “evil cult” -- alleges that authorities are removing organs from dissident members of other religions – Muslim Uighurs, Buddhist Tibetans, and Christians, as well. At a news conference at Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the Falun Gong released its 2010 report on government persecution. An estimated 9,000 members of Falun Gong have been executed for their corneas, lungs, livers, kidneys and skins, the group claimed.

Ethan Gutmann, of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said, "These groups are useless to the state. They are toxic, so you can't release them. But they're worth a great deal of money in terms of their organs." Organs from a single person could be worth as much as US$100,000.

The plight of the Falun Gong has not attracted much sympathy in the American media. Barely anyone apart from the Washington Times paid the slightest attention to these astonishing allegations. It’s impossible to know how true they are, but the persecution is a fact. Earlier this month the New York Times reported that two lawyers who defended a member of the Falun Gong in court could be disbarred. ~ Washington Times, Apr 27;