—The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 202 (HR 1503), legislation authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), to impose sanctions on any person who a president determines funds, sponsors or facilitates forced organ harvesting, or trafficking for purposes of the stealing human organs was overwhelmingly passed in the US House of Representatives today.

“Mr. Speaker, every year under General Secretary Xi Jinping and his Chinese Communist Party, tens of thousands of young women and men—average age 28—are murdered in cold blood to steal their internal organs for profit or to be transplanted into communist party cadres—members and leaders,” said Smith, the Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, during the debate on the House floor. Smith’s bill passed 406-1.

“These crimes against humanity are unimaginably cruel and painful. Between 2 to 6 internal organs per victim are extracted.  It is murder masquerading as medicine. Ethnic groups targeted include Uyghurs who suffer from Xi Jinping's ongoing genocide and the Falun Gong, whose peaceful meditation and exercise practices and exceptional good health make their organs highly desirable.” Click here to read his floor statement.

The House overwhelmingly passed Smith’s bill in 2023 in a 413-2 vote, but unfortunately, it died in the Senate.  Without action, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) has continued its ghoulish industry unchecked, stealing organs from young Chinese citizens and other Central Asians, especially Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs in concentration camps.

“To combat these heinous,  inhumane, ever-expanding  practices, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to require the imposition of serious sanctions on any person the President determines funds, sponsors or otherwise facilitates forced organ harvesting or trafficking for purposes of the removal of organs,” said Smith, who has worked for decades to expose this horrific practice including chairing several hearings on Capitol Hill beginning in the 1990’s.  

“In June of 1998—twenty-seven years ago—I chaired my first hearing on forced organ harvesting in China.  A Chinese security officer testified that he and other security agents were executing patients with the doctors right there with ambulances ready to harvest their organs after the bullets were fired,” said the senior U.S. lawmaker who has held 106 hearings on human rights and other abuses in China alone.

“At another hearing in 2022, we learned that some of the organs are stolen from victims who are still alive.  One doctor testified how he had performed one such surgery on a victim of a botched execution and discovered as he began cutting that the victim was in a state of shock—not dead yet—and a live vivisection on a living human was being performed.

“State-sponsored forced organ harvesting is big business for Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party and shows absolutely no signs of abating, which is why we and the rest of the world need to step up, particularly the democracies of this world.

“We must act—and we must act decisively,” Smith said.

To combat the inhumane practice, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025:

• amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to require the imposition of serious sanctions on any person the President determines funds, sponsors or otherwise facilitates forced organ harvesting or trafficking for purposes of the removal of organs. 
• requires comprehensive reports on forced organ harvesting and trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs in foreign countries, including and especially in China.
• requires civil penalties up to $250,000 and criminal penalties including a fine of up to $1 million and imprisonment for not more than 20 years or both.
• imposes sanctions, including blocking and prohibiting all transactions in property and interests in property and making such persons inadmissible to the United States and ineligible to receive a visa.

Several human rights leaders attended and some spoke at a press conference with Smith on the steps of the Capitol Building today: Dean Baxendale is a CEO of the China Democracy Foundation; Rushan Abbas, Campaign for Uyghurs; Mark Yang, Falun Dafa Information Center; Omer Kanat, Uyghur Human Rights Project; Louisa Greve, of the World Uyghur Congress, and; Elfidar Iltebir, Uyghur American Association.

“People disappear overnight, and their hearts, lungs and kidneys are sold to the highest bidder,” said Rushan Abbas. “Why? Because we are Muslim. Because we don’t drink. Because we consume only Halal food. Because we are seen as disposable. The Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, led by Congressman Chris Smith, is a needed step toward justice.”

Omer Kanat said, “When the people are so dehumanized, as the Uyghurs are, there is nothing to stop the authorities from using Uyghurs as a living organ bank.”

Mark Yang also spoke, stating, “Thanks to Rep. Chris Smith – who has stood with us from the very beginning – we now see the fruits of his unwavering leadership. His Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act has gained wide bipartisan support.”

Smith’s bill has been endorsed by numerous human rights organizations, including: the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China; the Lantos Foundation; the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation; The Remembrance Society; the World Without Genocide; China Aid; the Falun Dafa Information Centre; the World Uyghur Congress; the Uyghur Human Rights Project; the Uyghur American Association and the Campaign for Uyghurs.

In a letter addressed to every member of the House of Representatives, the groups asked them to vote in favor of Smith’s legislation: “We urge you to vote in favor of HR 1503 – the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025. Your support and passage of this legislation will ensure that the United States is combating and not complicit in the heinous practice of forced organ harvesting.”

###