My Lords, it is a great privilege to follow the powerful speech of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath.
While the Human Tissue Act 2004 is thorough and comprehensive with regard to human tissue sourced from within the UK, this does not hold true for imported human tissue. Human tissue can be imported into the
UK without any consent or traceability. Notably, if it is for use in medicines, traceability is required through the Human Tissue (Quality and Safety for Human Application) Regulations 2007, but for use in medical research neither consent nor traceability is required. They are merely considered good practice. This means that human tissue sourced from China—where people are imprisoned and tortured, and where organs are extracted and sold for profit, a process which kills the donor—can legally enter the UK and be used in medical research.
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I too have met Sir Geoffrey Nice and seen the extensive evidence to the China Tribunal. Liu Yumei, an elderly Falun Gong practitioner, was originally arrested on 31 December 2000 in Beijing. Police officers threatened that if she did not give her name and address, they would take away her organs and her family would not find her corpse. She was severely tortured during her detention, shackled to a bed by her neck, sexually abused, electrocuted and force-fed urine mixed with rice and was forcibly blood tested by a prison doctor.
Many other tribunal witnesses underwent torture, blood tests and organ scans while in detention. Omir Bekali, a Uighur witness, described forced blood and urine samples and full body examinations in custody in 2017. Chillingly, Enver Tohti, a former surgeon, recounted removing the organs from a prisoner while the prisoner was still alive.
The China Tribunal concluded that
“Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and…Falun Gong practitioners have been one - and probably the main - source of organ supply”
and that
“In regard to the Uyghurs the Tribunal had evidence of medical testing on a scale that could allow them, amongst other uses, to become an ‘organ bank’.”
The UK cannot allow itself to be complicit. Our amendment simply authorises the power to implement regulation where needed on this issue. The Human Tissue Authority’s code of practice does not require evidence of consent as mandatory. In this country we have excellent transplant practices. They are subject to high standards of ethical behaviour and scrutiny. The Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board judgment in 2015 has made UK consent processes rigorous and detailed, requiring as a benchmark what a reasonable patient would expect to know.
I declare an interest as chair of the UK “Tribute to Life” board with NHSBT. Despite all our efforts here, we still have a problem with lower donation rates in the ethnically diverse population. This is the group which is strongly represented on the transplant waiting list because diabetic renal failure is a relatively frequent reason for needing renal transplant. This amendment would send a very strong message across the UK that we do not tolerate unethical practice anywhere and could improve confidence in our own transplant systems. Increased confidence should lead to increased organ donation by families.
Would research be impeded by giving the Government the powers in this amendment? Absolutely not—research would not be impeded in any way. Current cell lines in research are long-standing. If new cell lines are sought,
they will be developed from germ cells consented to in this country. We have no need to import these from anywhere that consent is not absolutely unequivocal.
An NHS freedom of information request revealed that in the last 10 years, 29 patients are known to have travelled to China for transplant surgery. Prior freedom of information requests confirmed that, between 1995 and 2012, 22 people from the UK travelled to China to receive kidneys: five received kidneys from deceased donors and 17 received kidneys from living donors. No further information about the Chinese donors was given. Are we happy with this, when we know nothing about the consent processes? Were these truly voluntary donations? We do not know whether the living donors are adequately cared for nor the details around the death of deceased donors.
We need research into first-hand experiences of transplants outside of the UK. Other countries including Spain, Italy, Taiwan, Israel, Norway and Belgium have already taken legislative action to stop unethical organ tourism to countries like China. While I realise that combating unethical organ tourism is not possible within the scope of this Bill, preventing human tissue from victims of forced organ harvesting from entering the UK can be.
The symbolism for this amendment should not be underestimated. It simply gives powers to the Government and sends a strong message to all those patients awaiting transplant here that our ethical standards are of the highest calibre, and that the minority groups in this country have nothing to fear. When tragedy strikes, they can give the gift of life by donating organs from a deceased relative and can even ask for priority if they themselves are awaiting transplantation.
To justify resisting this amendment, the Minister must spell out the unintended consequences of this if there are any. To say this is not the Bill, or not the time, and so on, will just not be good enough.