Tag: organ harvesting

Israel’s organ theft scandal exposes a culture of desecration

On 25 January, Israeli President Isaac Herzog stood before a crowd celebrating what Tel Aviv claimed was a world record in kidney donations. The event, promoted after a lobbying push to Guinness World Records, was meant to project generosity, discipline, and moral purpose.

But Guinness listed only the gathering itself as a record, not the kidney donations that Tel Aviv had turned into a public relations show.

The bodies behind the numbers

In Gaza, where Israel has been returning Palestinian bodies in bags, sometimes decomposed, mutilated, or showing signs of surgical interference, the celebration landed differently. For Palestinian health officials, the question was not how Israel had produced so many donors, but whether all of those bodies had consented.

Dimming Israel’s “propaganda facade” was none other than Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. He said Israel’s “record numbers” raised serious questions about the sources of the kidneys and other organs now being celebrated. He pointed to the stark contradiction of an occupation state that has held Palestinian bodies for years in the “cemeteries of numbers” and refrigerators while presenting itself to the world as a humanitarian model in organ donation.

Bursh cited documented cases of bodies returned to families missing organs, especially kidneys, without medical reports, autopsy files, or any legal path to accountability. He demanded an independent international investigation into whether Israel’s claimed achievement had been built on the theft of Palestinian organs.

Just over a week later, Israel returned the scattered remains of some 54 Palestinians to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Forensic teams quickly got to work in an attempt to identify the bodies and give closure to their families, but noted that many of the corpses had clear signs of torture and the surgical organ removal.

This was not the first such warning since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Ten days into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, allegations of organ theft had already surfaced. By late November 2023, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor called for an investigation into the theft of Palestinian organs, after “medical professionals found evidence of organ theft, including missing cochleas and corneas as well as other vital organs like livers, kidneys, and hearts.”

Israel and its defenders moved to blunt the spread of these allegations by invoking “blood libel” and antisemitism. Because the evidence came from Palestinians, calls for international scrutiny have largely fallen on deaf ears.

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Iowa Hospital Accused of Illegally Harvesting Air Force Veteran’s Organs, Skin, Eyes and Tissue – Daughters Sue for Malpractice and Emotional Distress

The daughters of a 69-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran have filed a federal lawsuit against an Iowa hospital, claiming staff improperly harvested their father’s organs, skin, eyes, and tissue without his prior consent or any authorization from his next of kin.

The lawsuit claims the harvesting was done without even attempting to contact his children.

Martin Gillespie, a proud Air Force veteran described by family as a loving father of three and grandfather of eight, was pronounced dead on April 1 at Alegent Health Community Memorial Hospital in Missouri Valley.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by Law & Crime, Gillespie never authorized any anatomical gifts or organ donation during his lifetime.

The complaint alleges that hospital staff made “no attempt to contact” Gillespie’s next of kin, his daughters, Christina Gubbels and Daun Stoddard, before referring his body to the Iowa Donor Network.

Hours later, on the same day, the Iowa Donor Network harvested his organs, skin tissue, and eyes.

Gillespie’s body was then transported to Hennessey Funeral Home in Missouri Valley for cremation.

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Forced Organ Harvesting Issue Key to Shifting US Understanding of CCP, Says ‘Killed to Order’ Author

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) practice of forced organ harvesting is a lens through which Americans can come to understand the true nature of the CCP and how it engages with the United States and international community, according to Jan Jekielek, author of the new book “Killed to Order.”

Jekielek, senior editor and Washington bureau chief at The Epoch Times, sat down at the Hudson Institute with Nina Shea, director of the think tank’s Center for Religious Freedom, to discuss on March 18 evidence of the CCP’s forced organ harvesting and how the regime expands complicity.

In the book, Jekielek discusses how the United States poured money and support into China beginning in the 1970s, believing that industry would be a liberalizing force, and how that belief would unravel only decades later.

The book also reveals how the CCP began its practice of harvesting organs from unwilling prisoners as early as the 1980s, subsequently building up China’s transplantation expertise and expanding medical experimentation on political prisoners.

“The very moment when we were introducing them to the World Trade Organization, giving them [Most Favored Nation] status, this was going on, the organ harvesting was getting off the ground,” Shea said.

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Israeli official organizes ‘prison tour’ for Jewish settlers to observe torture of Palestinians

Israeli prison authorities gave a tour of a maximum-security facility to Jewish settlers where they held a “Torah lesson” and observed the abuse of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli media reported on 23 February.

Kobi Yaakobi, head of Israel’s prison system, invited 20 members of the synagogue in Har Homa, an illegal West Bank settlement near Jerusalem, on a “safari” tour of Nitzan maximum-security prison.

Palestinian detainees, including alleged members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, were handcuffed and forced to lie on the ground to be observed by the visitors. The Jewish settlers ate an “indulgent lunch” in front of the prisoners, who were fasting for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The settlers also “blessed” the prison guards.

Israel runs a “network of torture camps,” where rape, physical and psychological abuse, inhuman conditions, deliberate starvation, and denial of medical care are common, according to Israeli rights groups B’Tselem. 

“The transformation of prisons into a network of torture camps is part of the Israeli regime’s coordinated onslaught on Palestinian society, aimed at dismantling the Palestinian collective,” B’Tselem noted.

The Israel Prison Service (IPS) confirmed to Israeli media that its officers accompanied a “rabbi and his entourage” for a sermon and tour of a security prison. 

Yaakobi was appointed as IPS chief in January 2024 by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. The IPS chief has helped Ben Gvir implement a policy to deliberately worsen the conditions of Palestinian prisoners.

Yaakobi is currently under investigation for allegedly helping suppress a probe into Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

As of November, at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 2023, according to Israeli data.

However, the Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHR-I) says the real toll is likely substantially higher as hundreds of detainees from Gaza are missing.

On 8 February, Israel returned the bodies and human remains of 120 Palestinians to Gaza without providing any information about their identities or how they were killed.

The remains arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in plain white bags, where forensic teams examined them in an effort to determine their identities and notify grieving families.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross handed over 120 body bags containing 54 bodies as well as skull samples placed in 66 separate bags,” forensic official Omar Suleiman told Al Jazeera.

After Israel returned 120 Palestinian bodies in October, officials in Gaza accused it of stealing the organs of the victims.

Israel has a long history of stealing the organs of Palestinians.

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Nigeria Investigates Organ-Harvesting Ring After Discovering Mutilated Corpses

Police in the southeastern Nigerian state of Imo are investigating a possible organ-harvesting ring after finding a hideous trove of mutilated corpses at a hotel.

The Imo horror is an especially grim example of Nigeria’s kidnapping epidemic, in which every sort of malevolent group — from Islamic State jihadis to huge bandit gangs and small groups of petty criminals — kidnaps vulnerable people. Sometimes the kidnappers hold their victims for ransom and murder them if the ransom is not paid. In other cases, the abductors are looking for child brides.

In Imo, it appears a kidnapping ring was carving up its victims to harvest their organs. State police said on Monday that during their “ongoing war against kidnapping,” they tracked an unnamed suspect to an illegal mortuary and nearby hotel that he owned.

“At the mortuary, decomposed and mutilated dead bodies were discovered in unhygienic conditions, raising suspicions of illegal organ-harvesting activities,” said a police spokesman.

According to the UK Daily Mail, over a hundred bodies were found at the “organ-harvesting slaughterhouse.” Both the hotel and mortuary were sealed by police while forensic teams examined the scene.

Nigeria’s Punch newspaper reported on Monday that the organ-harvesting investigation was related to the “intensive manhunt for armed men who attacked motorists and abducted passengers” in a nearby community.

Police responded in force after a group of armed men ambushed two vehicles, fatally shooting the driver of one and kidnapping the passengers in the other. Security teams were said to be “bush-combing, search-and-rescue, and suspect-tracking within the Amala forest axis and surrounding communities.”

The implication behind linking these two stories is that the carjacking gang has been kidnapping travelers and taking them to the “illegal mortuary” for their organs to be harvested. The police have yet to identify any of the perpetrators involved in the vehicle ambush, but they named the suspect wanted in connection with the mortuary as Stanley Morocco Oparaugo.

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‘Horror story’: RFK Jr. reveals chilling organ harvesting scandal

Ashocking revelation from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has exposed what he calls a “horror story” inside America’s organ donation system.

On a recent segment of Newsmax, RFK Jr. detailed a case in which a woman allegedly awoke while her organs were being harvested and did not live to tell the tale.

“It’s a horror story, and part of it is because of the capture of the agency that was regulating ORR, had a — the board that was actually regulating organ harvesting was overlapping with the contractor that was actually harvesting the organs,” he began.

“I had one instance where a family was waiting at the hospital for the body of their deceased relative. The relative was brought to one of these private organ harvesting centers, awoke while they were harvesting her organs, and then was brought back to the hospital … where she died eventually,” he continued.

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Gaza officials formally accuse Israel of organ theft, demand international probe

Gaza’s Government Media Office formally accused Israel on 17 October of stealing organs from Palestinians after Israel returned 120 mutilated bodies following the recent ceasefire, including some who had been tortured to death.

“We formally accuse the Israeli army of stealing organs from the martyrs,” stated Dr. Ismail al-Thawabta, Director General of the Media Office, while demanding an international investigation into Israel’s “torture, mutilation, and organ theft.”

The 120 bodies “arrived in extremely poor and distressing condition,” including blindfolded, bound, crushed under tanks, and missing corneas, livers, and limbs, Thawabta stated.

“The Israeli occupation executed many of them in cold blood. A large number were found blindfolded, with their hands and feet bound, and others showed signs of hanging or close-range gunfire,” he added.

“We also found bodies showing clear evidence of severe torture until death.”

Thawabta explained that Israeli authorities refused to provide the names of the victims, making it extremely difficult for authorities in Gaza to identify them.

After the release of the bodies, families of missing Palestinians rushed to hospitals—especially Nasser Hospital—trying to see if their relatives were among them. But many remain unidentified and will have to be buried anonymously.

“The health system in Gaza is almost completely collapsed. We lack the equipment for DNA testing and forensic analysis. Some families could only identify their loved ones from personal belongings or clothing. If we cannot identify the rest, we will be forced, sadly, to document and bury them anonymously, to preserve human dignity,” Thawabta added.

According to the Media Office’s data, 9,500 Palestinians remain missing, most of them trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

“Entire families—father, mother, children—remain buried for nearly two years,” the Media Office director stated.

The bodies are difficult to locate due to the sheer amount of destruction Israeli bombing has caused, and because Israel has destroyed almost all of Gaza’s heavy machinery, bulldozers, and excavators, preventing rescue operations.

“Even now, despite the ceasefire, all crossings remain closed, and Israel blocks the entry of rescue machinery. This is a humanitarian catastrophe unprecedented in modern history—over 3,000 families completely wiped out, another 6,000 families killed with only one survivor,” Thawabta added.

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Organ harvesting SURGES in woke dystopia pushing euthanasia as a cure for depression

Organ harvesting has surged across Canada, fueled by controversial assisted suicides offered to people battling depression, not terminal illness.

Canada legalized Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in 2016, allowing medical professionals to either administer a lethal injection or prescribe a drug that eligible patients can take themselves to end their lives. 

Those who opt for MAiD can also agree to donate their organs after death, voluntarily giving them to patients in need of a transplant.

But today, even Canadians who aren’t terminal can qualify for the government’s assisted suicide program – from those battling autoimmune diseases and diabetes to chronic pain sufferers who could live for years with proper care. 

The controversial policy was delayed until March 2024 amid fierce arguments that it could be exploiting the most vulnerable, pressuring them to give up their organs to others deemed more deserving.

‘Will they recognize that we need to treat depression and give people hope for a better life rather than ending their lives?’ Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told CBC at the time.

Yet Canada’s euthanasia program has since become a ‘world leader’ in organ harvesting, with 15,280 doctor-assisted suicide deaths reported in 2023 – a 15 percent jump on the previous year.

Many of these patients weren’t even dying, and records suggest that up to 25 percent of Ontario MAiD providers may have skirted the criminal code. 

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Federal Investigation Reveals Serious Failures in Organ Donation System

More than 48,000 organ transplants occur in the United States annually. Over 103,000 people remain on the waiting list, and around 13 die each day still hoping for a match. Organ donation is often seen as a final act of generosity — it’s the ultimate gift, the gift of life. Being an organ donor saves as many as eight people — and enhances the lives of over 75 more.1

But beneath this noble act, there’s something sinister going on — widespread safety failures, negligence, and oversight that not only disregard the sanctity of the donor, but also put living patients in harm’s way. This is what a federal investigation sought to uncover. Their findings reveal the disturbing practices behind the organ donation system, and expose just how deep the systemic problems run.

A sweeping federal investigation into organ procurement misconduct is now being conducted in the U.S., particularly focused on a now-defunct organization in Kentucky. The investigation began after a single, shocking case caught national attention — A brain-dead patient waking up on the operating table just as his organs were about to be harvested.2,3

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U.S. helps capture baby trafficking cartel leader ‘La Diabla’

U.S. officials said they helped arrest a Mexican cartel ringleader known as “La Diabla,” who was accused of running a baby trafficking and organ-harvesting scheme that left pregnant women dead and their newborns sold off for big bucks.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Wednesday that authorities arrested Martha Alicia Mendez Aguilar, a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, during a joint operation with Mexican police earlier this month in Juarez, Mexico.

The ODNI said La Diabla lured pregnant, often impoverished women to remote locations before forcing them to go through with the illegal cesarean sections.

The infant would fetch roughly $13,500 on the black market, officials said, while the mother, who was usually killed during the procedure, had her organs removed to be sold as well.

“This is one example of what terrorist cartels will do to diversify their revenue streams and finance operations,” said Joe Kent, the ODNI’s director of its National Counterterrorism Center.

He said U.S. intelligence tracked down La Diabla and helped Mexican and American authorities carry out the Sept. 2 arrest of the ringleader.

“I am proud of our team’s ability to work with our forward deployed U.S. partners and Mexican law enforcement to stop these horrific acts,” Mr. Kent said. “NCTC remains committed to disrupting all aspects of terrorist cartels and their operations. And in this case, the lives of innocent women and children depended on it.”

Ms. Mendez Aguilar’s arrest was aided by President Trump’s designation of Mexican cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

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