The average person's indifference regarding where the product he or she is purchasing might be coming from is bad enough.
Although perhaps it's not even so surprising — in the day and age when just about all of our products are made by people overseas toiling away for 16-hour days in sweatshops, it's a lot easier not to think about it than to get depressed obsessing over something we have so little control over.
However, when it comes to illegally harvested organs, it's a different story.
We're not exactly talking about getting a new pair of shoes or a shirt here. Sweatshop workers undoubtedly endure deplorable conditions, but they are compensated — albeit extremely marginally — and they usually at least get to go home at some point.
Obviously, the same cannot be said of the procurement of human organs. Technology is coming along, but we are a long way from having healthy organs grown in a lab, even if that possibility is on the horizon. Until then, the only humane way to get organs for transplants is to wait for a compatible, willing donor to die.
Most developed countries depend on a supply that comes largely from voluntary programs, but of course with no steady or readily available supply that means wait periods can go on for several years.
But not in China, where the average wait time for a new organ is less than two weeks. Allegations have been surfacing for years that the communist government — which ironically calls itself a people's republic — has been harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience. It's the stuff horror movies are made of.
The purported victims include a large number of followers of the Falun Gong movement, which espouses peaceful philosophies rooted in truth, compassion and tolerance — not exactly traits generally associated with the Chinese regime.
A number of Canadian practitioners of Falun Gong have recently been raising awareness about the issue by driving to communities in Alberta. Although volunteer organizer Jenny Yang knows Canadian politicians are in no position to directly change Chinese domestic policy, she nevertheless wants to raise awareness about the issue to increase the international community's ability to apply pressure.
“Canada plays a significant role on the international stage,” she told the Round Up during a stop in Sundre on Sept. 26.
“We're always so proud of Canada's history and its important role on human rights. We should be strong on this issue.”
Open public discourse is the best way to bring about change in China. That's what the communist party is most afraid of — is that more people will get to know the issue and begin to talk about it publicly, she said.
“They don't care about private dialogue.”
The only way is to let more media know, to let more people know, and in turn to increase the amount of pressure applied by the international community, she said.
“Little by little, we can definitely help to stop this crime.”
Addressing a problem is impossible without first acknowledging it exists.
So if you are among those who find themselves in the unfortunate situation of requiring a life-saving organ transplant and have the means to even be able to consider going to China for surgery, exercise the utmost scrutiny.
Surely the last thing anyone wants on his or her conscience is to know the life-saving organ that person received came from an innocent and unwilling victim who was imprisoned for practising a peaceful philosophy and subsequently killed for it at a ridiculous profit.
