The Tainan City Council on Tuesday warned Taiwanese against traveling to China to receive illegal organ transplants, joining three other city council in issuing similar calls.
It also condemned the illegal practice as a crime against humanity.
RESOLUTION
Photo courtesy of Tainan City Council
The city council passed a cross-party resolution sponsored by 28 councilors, demanding that the Tainan City Government do more to raise awareness of organ harvesting in China and help dissuade people from traveling there to participate in the practice, which is banned under the Human Organ Transplantation Act (人體器官移植條例).
The resolution also voiced the council’s support for the Universal Declaration on Combating and Preventing Organ Harvesting, which was issued by five non-governmental organizations during the 2021 UN General Assembly.
CALL FOR END
The declaration calls for an end to harvesting organs from living persons for profit, which it describes as one of the worst mass atrocities of the century.
The act states that it is illegal for people in Taiwan or abroad to participate in the organ trade abroad, and that anybody brokering transplants could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to NT$1.5 million (US$48,151).
Article 12 of the act stipulates that organs for transplantation should be provided or acquired free of charge.
The Tainan City Council also joined lawmakers in calling for drawing up new legislation based on the declaration to criminalize organ harvesting.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS