MINNEAPOLIS (April 3, 2018) — “Hard to Believe,” a documentary by former University of Minnesota journalism professor Ken Stone, alleges that the Chinese government is involved with executing prisoners for their organs without much condemnation from abroad.
The film will be screened for free at 6:30 p.m. April 9, at the University of Minnesota in Moos Tower, Room 2-520. Mr. Stone will be present to speak and answer questions about the film.
The Falun Gong Twin Cities Club organized the screening in collaboration with local Falun Gong practitioners. The University of Minnesota has one of the largest Chinese student populations in North America. The Falun Gong call to question the U of MN’s collaboration with a Nanjing Medical University liver transplant trial when it may involve students trained at the university collaborating on research that uses organs taken from Chinese prisoners of conscience.
“Hard to Believe” is an investigation into human rights abuses. The murder of prisoners of conscience in China and the sale of organs to foreign patients comes to life through personal stories, including an author’s 7-year investigation and a surgeon’s confession.
An investigative report estimates that 60,000 to 100,000 transplants have been performed every year since 2000, when China’s prison population exploded after the Chinese Communist Party began persecuting any citizen practicing the Falun Gong spiritual discipline.
In addition to Ken Stone, former Minn. State Sen.Alice Johnson will speak at the event. She authored SF 2090, a resolution expressing concerns about China’s systematic forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, primarily Falun Gong practitioners. The resolution was passed unanimously on May 20, 2016.
Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., leading U.S. ethicist and Founding Director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU, said “Hard To Believe” is “an important, timely, and deeply disturbing account of one of the great human rights abuses of our time.”
