The recent sentencing of a Chinese doctor and the mysterious death of a whistleblower have further exposed the large-scale state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting in China, according to analysts.
Liu Xiangfeng, a surgeon at a top Chinese hospital who was accused of corruption and removing patients’ healthy organs, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in China.
Meanwhile, the parents of the whistleblower—who died in suspicious circumstances after collating evidence against Liu and the hospital—had gone into hiding on Nov. 3 just before the police went to arrest them, a source familiar with the matter told The Epoch Times.
Sentencing
Liu, 50, was the deputy chief physician at the Second Xiangya Hospital of the Central South University. Between 2017 and 2018, he studied at the Baylor College of Medicine in the United States, according to his now-deleted profile on the hospital’s website.
Liu had been under investigation and dubbed the “devil doctor” by Chinese media after anonymous whistleblowers’ allegations went viral on social media in 2022. He was accused of various wrongdoings, including performing unnecessary surgeries on patients with minor conditions as well as patients beyond saving and removing healthy organs from patients for profit.
On Oct. 31, a Chinese court sentenced Liu to 17 years in prison for crimes such as intentional injury, bribery, and occupational embezzlement. He was also fined 420,000 yuan (about $58,200).
Death of Whistleblower
New allegations have recently emerged against Liu and the Second Xiangya Hospital, brought forth by the parents of the dead whistleblower, Luo Shuaiyu.
According to police reports, Luo died after falling from the hospital dormitory building on May 8.
Luo was a student pursuing a master’s degree and worked as an intern at the hospital’s kidney transplant department.
Luo’s family claimed that the Second Xiangya Hospital, over the years, used the WeChat accounts of students, including Luo’s, to “transfer up to 40 million yuan [about $5.5 million] of profit from illicit organ transplants” to the head nurse of the kidney transplant department.
Luo’s father also spoke of conversations he had with Luo in which his son suggested that doctors at the hospital had been removing patients’ organs without their knowledge or consent.
One recorded phone conversation between a hospital “liaison” and then-newly employed Luo eventually led to the death of the intern, his father believes.
In the clip, the person could be heard asking Luo to find 12 pediatric donors, including six children aged between 3 and 5, and six children aged between 6 and 9, and each group was required to include three boys and three girls.
The purpose of the three-year project was “to study kidney transplantation from child donors and to collect experimental data for a research paper,” according to Luo’s father.
The father said Luo had refused to carry out the task and may have been murdered because of it.
According to the source who spoke to Luo’s father, the day before Luo died, Luo was pressured again by his tutor to source the 12 child donors, and Luo responded with threats to report it.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the allegations.
State-Sanctioned Organ Harvesting
According to China experts, Liu’s case is only an offshoot of China’s industrial-scale organ harvesting.
Tang Jingyuan, a U.S.-based current affairs commentator and a medical doctor, said the court’s description of Liu’s crimes obscured the core issue of “stealing patients’ healthy organs” and selling organs for profit.
