(Clearwisdom.net) The 30th Law and Mental Health Meeting was held on June 25 to 30, 2007 in Padova, an ancient city 30 miles from Venice, Italy. Several hundred law experts and mental health experts from around the world attended the meeting. The attendees showed great concern over the violations of medical ethics and human rights taking place in China.
On June 27, there was a two-hour forum on international human rights. Retired Judge of the Canadian Supreme Court Claire Heureux-Dubé hosted the discussion after the speeches. Erping Zhang from the Association for Asian Research in the U.S. was the first speaker. He introduced the eight years of persecution of Falun Gong happening in China-the cause and its social background. After that, renowned Canadian lawyer David Matas explained to the attendees that he cooperated with former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific David Kilgour and conducted an independent investigation on the atrocity of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in China. Matas pointed out that as one of the members of the World Medical Association, the Chinese Medical Association, has been constantly violating the medical ethics standards of the association since it joined the association in 1989. He suggested that the World Medical Association should take effective measures to stop the illegal organ transplantation in China and cancel the membership of the Chinese Medical Association.
Psychiatric doctor from the University of Cincinnati Ms. Sunny Lu enumerated a large number of cases in which China's mental hospitals misused anti-psychiatric drugs to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, and cases of using unknown drugs to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in detention centers, forced labor camps and brainwashing centers, as well as cases of torturing practitioners to death. She pointed out that although the international community has taken some measures to stop such acts of violating international medical treatment standards and doctors' professional ethics, the persecution is still going on. The international medical organizations should continue to pay attention to it.
President of the World Medical Association Dr. Jon Snaedal pointed out at the forum on international medical ethics standards that the World Medical Association has 80 members of country-level medical associations. One of its important functions is to supervise its member countries to act according to a series of relevant medical ethics standards of the association. He said that doctors should not participate in assisting with torture. He pointed out that the World Medical Association opposes harvesting organs from executed prisoners in China. They have contacted the Chinese Medical Association, hoping that they can stop the act of violating doctors' professional ethics. Thomas Wenzel from Switzerland spoke on behalf of the International Association for Treating Torture Victims. He pointed out that the organization cooperated with the World Medical Association and the Physicians for Human Rights. They are systematically investigating doctors in some countries on their acts of violating medical ethics and participating in torture and persecution. He suggested that doctors who have violated medical ethics should be punished. He said that they have not gone to China to investigate, and that the main reason is that the Chinese government (Chinese Communist Party) does not cooperate.