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Receiving an Organ
Transplant from China

The waiting time was short, extremely short:
A couple weeks and fifty thousand bucks
Was all it took in China; somewhere else
It’d take six months at least, which frankly sucks
If you are sick most days and soon could die.
It was like clockwork at the hospital,
The military runs the whole thing well—
You’d never think that it was criminal.
And all was fine. I was a debtor to
The Chinese race, to some poor bastard who
Undoubtedly had died too young; but I
Just did what anyone, I think, would do.
“A kidney is a terrible thing to waste,”
I still remember saying on the day.
The faintest waft of guilt had tinged the air—
I cut in line I guess that you could say.

What I did not expect were all the nightmares
I started having. They were similar:
A dark-haired man is there, sometimes he’s me,
Sometimes I’m watching him; it’s all a blur.
And all is well, peaceful in fact, I pray
Or meditate and just feel real relaxed
Until a group of men in uniforms
Shows up. Surveillance footage traced my tracks
To where I’m sitting now. The door bang-bangs.
This isn’t America; I have no gun
And no appeal or hope of legal rights.
I check the window: fourth floor. I can’t run.
Surrounded now in swirling darkness, trapped
Without a hope and helpless, helpless—hell
It seems as I am taken to a table,
Confined in anesthesia’s prison cell.
And every ounce of being that I have
Tries breaking out… My skin just barely twitches,
Flickers more awareness of the feeling
Of the scalpel as it splits the inches
Of my silent flesh. Pain drowns my senses.

—Awake, I’m soaked in suffocating fear.
Heart-pounding beats slow down. I am alive
And float to that one happiness’s pier.
What am I left with? Shakes, uneasiness—
Perhaps I’ll never have my peace of mind.

The other day when I was in the city,
In Chinatown, some guy I think was blind
Told me some crazy things I won’t forget:
“The Communist Party is,” he says to me,
“A dragon, scales of red, nested in China,
Fulfilling now an ancient prophecy.
It has unleashed a beast upon mankind
That’s feared, esteemed, and worshipped for its might,
And on its back a gorgeous woman rides.
Her golden cup in hand is filled with blight
Upon the Earth, a sweetened mix of poisons:
New biological weapons yet unknown,
New coal plants everyday that taint the air,
New people in high places that they own
Who sell their souls to fornicate with her;
She rips out organs from the innocent
And blends them in the filthy cup that goes
Around to dribbling faces’ merriment.”

“But wait,” he says, “with patient faithfulness
The day of judgment shall be coming soon
When Beijing’s Babylon is smashed to ruins
By earthquakes raging ‘neath the blood red moon.
Then merchants weep because of lost investments:
The batteries that ran electric cars,
The solar cells and iPhones marked on sale,
The pension funds that wished upon dark stars,
The labor that was cheap because it ran
On slaves enslaved by endless propaganda
That made them think there was no other way
Than following one party’s sick agenda.
Ship captains watch in wonder from the sea
While those who held to goodness draw their swords
And triumph over all the Earth led by
The One: Creator of all Kings and Lords.”

He finished saying all of this to me
And sure I know it all sounds raving mad
But now I wish I shook his hand and asked
His name, for something in it all made sense…
I swear it gave me peace and made me glad.

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Poet’s Note: The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill intended to punish those who have been involved in forced organ harvesting in communist China. 

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Evan Mantyk teaches literature and history in New York and is Editor of the Society of Classical Poets.

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The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


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38 Responses

    • Evan Mantyk

      Thank you, Dick. As a medical doctor yourself, perhaps you can perceive the evilness of this more acutely. There have been Chinese defectors who had connections back to these crimes in the mainland and one, I believe, was a woman whose husband, a medical doctor, killed himself after doing some of these forced organ transplant, basically killing people on the operating table.

      Reply
  2. Monika Cooper

    So much moral murk surrounds organ transplants. Your poem and its vision cut through.

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Thank you, Monika. Good point. I was thinking of the clear cut cases in China where the “donor” is unwilling, but one has to wonder about other circumstances where the organs are good but somehow the person isn’t worth saving. In fact, in China, voluntary organ donation is extremely unpopular for cultural reasons and there is no actual organ donation system like we have in the USA, which makes the forced organ harvesting that murders people that much more obvious.

      Reply
      • Monika Cooper

        The murk of ignorance about what’s really happening in many cases with organ transplants is a big part of what I was referring to. The guy getting the transplant in your poem has vague guilt about “cutting the line” but doesn’t clearly see the evil of forced organ harvesting he’s walking into. What Joshua Frank says about using “brain death” as a pretext for getting organs fresh enough to use is another area where people are in the dark. Only in the last few years have I learned about that.

        One thing I love about your poem though is that the man who benefits from the sick exploitation of someone else experiences awakening, conversion, and recovers peace of mind. The pro-life movement, in all its aspects, has to proceed in large part by conversions. Or where would any of us be? In your poem, the truth of the horror he’s participated in, when he fully faces it, sets the collaborator free.

        It’s unbelievable how much deception and temptation surround anyone going into the hospital for practically anything in today’s world.

  3. Brian A Yapko

    Evan, this compelling poem is horrifying, epic, cinematic, nightmarish. I’m running out of adjectives for something that is both intimate and monumental, as personal as one man’s soul and as vast as an apocalyptic vision. The imagery is stunning, the politics are solid, the moral foundation is so very clear. This is poetry which throws one helluva powerful punch into the jaw of the C.C.P. and which should make any thinking person sick at the thought of buying anything that says “Made in China.” It’s brilliant work and it saddens me deeply that it had to be written. This is an important poem.

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Thank you, Brian!

      A boycott is hard, as we are probably both typing on China-made computers right now, but where it can be done not too inconveniently it sends a message to the people who do have the ability to make even bigger decisions about these things. Every little bit helps.

      Reply
  4. Margaret Coats

    Evan, what a broad range you have attempted here, and succeeded in pointing toward so many aspects of forced organ transplant crimes! The sick and selfish speaker suspects just a little beforehand, and comes to be partly aware of much more. Indeed the kidney had its effects–as the recipient comes to greater understanding of what he has participated in. There is a little mystery too: the donor of a kidney doesn’t necessarily die, but with identities of recipient and donor clear as blood in this poem, we wonder, because the backdrop of it all is surely evil. And as the meeting in Chinatown shows, forced organ harvesting has implications for the world as a whole, beyond what donors suffer and recipients realize. In fact, it is hardly correct to use the term “donor” for someone who has been forced to donate organs or life. This stream of increasing consciousness from the formerly egoistic recipient finally reveals a flash of good (beyond restored kidney function) done for him (with momentary peace achieved for him) when the Chinatown man instructs him–as you, Evan, try to spread instruction in this poem.

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Thank you for the sharp analysis, Margaret. Indeed, the word “donor” doesn’t seem right. Well said.

      Reply
  5. Joseph S. Salemi

    The Chinese Communist Party is running this ghoulish trade for profit, and for influence in wealthy Western nations among the rich left-liberal elite who can afford to purchase organs harvested from helpless political victims. Something similar happened in Cuba after Castro’s Communists took over — political enemies were sentenced to be shot, but not before making a trip to the Cuban Red Cross to be drained of an ample quantity of fresh blood.

    I cannot think of anyone who knowingly buys such an organ as being any different from someone who would buy a lampshade made from human skin in a Nazi concentration camp.

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Joe, my first thought is that I can’t imagine anyone would do it knowingly, but then again there must be a sizeable population of registered communists who are in the know about these things and some of them probably need organ transplant. The reality is that such are not human and can’t be empathized with.

      Reply
  6. Roy Eugene Peterson

    This powerful poem condemning and exposing such egregious and wickedly immoral acts of the CCP and those involved in the organ transplant trade is vividly haunting. You have captured the essence of evil while offering hope for the end to such practices with the “day of judgement” coming. The bill that was passed is one clear step in an effort to eliminate forced organ removal and sales abroad. I hope this poem gets widespread distribution!

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Thank you, Roy! It was passed in the House. Hopefully the Senate will pass it now. Unfortunately I suspect Schumer and McConnell do not have sufficient spine strength.

      Reply
  7. Joshua C. Frank

    This is great, Evan! It’s exactly the kind of poem Shelley was thinking of when he said that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. This needs worldwide circulation so people can know what the CCP is doing and stop buying things made in China. If Brian’s poem “Amends to the Innocent” hadn’t already done that for me, this poem would.

    While we’re on the topic of organ transplants, people mostly aren’t aware that all transplants of organs needed immediately by the donor for survival (such as hearts and lungs, but not a single kidney or part of a liver) are, by definition, done by murder. As I mentioned in my comment on “Cryogenics,” it’s made legal by modern culture’s slippery redefinition of death from the failure of the circulatory system (after which an organ is useless for transplantation) to the legal fiction called “brain death,” most likely invented to justify killing a living person in the hospital to harvest his organs for transplants: https://www.hprweb.com/2014/10/may-we-donate-our-organs/

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Fascinating, Josh. I was not aware of the issue, but it certainly makes sense in a system that, in some case, subsidizes abortions.

      Reply
  8. C.B. Anderson

    I’ve always wanted to try steak and kidney pie, but now I’m not so sure. I try not to buy things made in China, but what would I do without my morning dose of China Mutan White, my tea of choice? Such a graphic poem might not be the best fare for everyone, but, by God, how could you not have written it, knowing what you know?! And what am I if not someone else’s version of chopped liver? Great job.

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Kip, there must be some from Taiwan instead right?! That is where I get my high mountain green tea from. Thanks for the levity.

      Reply
  9. Yael

    Evan I’m very impressed with your tasteful poetic approach to this totally disgusting and horrifying subject. The way you weave apocalyptic scriptural allusions together with the life and death issues of the organ donor and recipient is poignant. Relief comes when the narrative acquires a transcendent quality towards the end of the poem as the reader is led to the hope of salvation. All is well which ends well.

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Thank you for the beautiful comment, Yael. I’m glad that came across. There are quite a few allusions to the Book of Revelations here and particularly the part about the red dragon and the Whore of Babylon.

      Reply
  10. Mike Bryant

    Evan, I love the way you put yourself into the character. The lines and rhymes are smooth and believable. The message is subtle but unmistakable. I know that there are problems in this area right here in the USA as well. The mania got its start in the sixties.
    My younger brother was in a serious accident… he was in a coma in a Houston hospital. The next day they informed my Mom that George was brain dead and they wanted her to sign a DNR and the organ donation form. Well, Mom was a nurse and she was having none of it.
    George lived.
    Weeks later one of George’s friends was in a motorcycle accident. They told his mom the same thing. She signed.
    He died.
    It seems to me that everyone is just doing their job, following the protocols… the doctors, the nurses, the police… everyone and we are all smoothly shuttled along from cradle to grave.
    The night, it seems, is quickly dying… without the rage.

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Mike, that is a fascinating and terrible story that I will not forget. My eyes have been opened to this issue. Thank you for sharing it.

      Reply
  11. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Evan, this stuff-of-nightmares poem needs to reach a wide audience with the shocking truth. For too long this pure evil has been brushed aside and glossed over. Your adeptly crafted, powerful poem rises from the page like the Dragon itself and breathes fire and ire in the reader’s face… these words cannot be ignored, which is why poetry is an excellent medium for a message of this magnitude.

    I remember reading stories in the UK of the first heart transplants and how recipients took on certain characteristics of the donors… we are more than just flesh and bone, and your poem says it perfectly. Thank you.

    Reply
  12. Norma Pain

    Evan, you have tackled this horrific subject admirably and written a poem that spells out the evil that is happening in China, that is so abhorrent to us all and which I myself, find extremely difficult to write about. Your poem is amazing, truthful and much needed. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Thank you, Norma. Horrific indeed. I recall, at one point some years ago, Stephen King actually mentioned the horrific reality of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China in an Amnesty International newsletter. He said something to the effect of this being a real life horror story.

      Reply
  13. James Sale

    A very powerful poem, Evan, especially the first half where you deal with ‘dealing with’ the personal guilt of using this ‘facility’; the line ‘Without a hope and helpless, helpless—hell’ is wonderfully adroit. I’ve always admired your Buddhism, Evan, but I note that when it comes to justice, the Book of Revelations takes some beating for relevant imagery! Indeed, ‘their smoke goes up forever’. Well done – a great piece.

    Reply
    • Monika Cooper

      I also found the Book of Revelations imagery fused with the dragon of Chinese myth surprising and powerful in this poem.

      Reply
      • Evan Mantyk

        Thank you, James and Monika. Objectively, it is quite interesting how Revelations mentions an “enormous red dragon” and how China is typically thought of as a dragon, communism is associated with red, and China is the most enormous country by population in the world (or at least was since quite possibly India has overtaken China now).

  14. Cynthia Erlandson

    This is overwhelmingly good and profound writing. I don’t think an AI could have done this.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Nice irony, Cynthia, but it’s not that it could not have done it but that it would not do it: you will be informed by it that it goes against its ethical policies not to upset people!!!

      Reply
    • Evan Mantyk

      Good point, Cynthia. I’ve been thinking that the difference between AI and human poetry, as James alludes to, is the human ability for big picture, macro formulation of concepts and ideas that can never be matched. It is the moment, the zeitgeist, the grandest or deepest feeling that shapes the poem and that are always changing in new and interesting ways.

      Reply
  15. Paul Freeman

    Yep, organ harvesting is becoming a lucrative business, partly because fewer organs are available for transplantation in Western countries due to the increased use of seatbelts.

    I wrote a short story along the lines of your poem some ten years or so back, Evan, set in China, about a guy targeted for ‘harvesting’ because of his rare blood group. At that time, organs were harvested from executed prisoners.

    It’s a growing phenomenon in that part of the world, India included, where the poor will sell a kidney just to make ends meet and Western ‘medical tourists’ take advantage.

    Thanks for bringing this topic to the fore.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Paul, don’t even start with making excuses for murder. I don’t give a damn if no organs are available for transplantation, there is no excuse.

      On the other hand, thank you for showing the rest of us where a pro-abortion attitude leads.

      Reply
      • Paul Freeman

        Who’s making excuses for murder? Not me. And stop projecting your hatred. It’s unbecoming.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        I don’t hate you. It’s just that you often try to push your liberal views on us when you know we’ve already examined the issues and made our own free decisions, and so when I see anything that seems like the start of that, I do my best to nip it in the bud.

        Since you say it wasn’t your intention to defend anyone, I’m assuming that’s true, and please accept my apology.

        I find that in liberal groups, I routinely offend people without even knowing why; it turns out to be because my worldview naturally leads me to say things that would not be thought of as bad here, but are seen as hateful in their worldview. You’ll have to forgive us if that happens here sometimes.

  16. Margaret Coats

    On the issue of boycotting “Made in China” goods, I am glad to hear Evan say every little bit helps. I agree, and especially since reading Brian Yapko’s first place poem in the 2022 Friends of Falun Gong poetry contest, I have found many more “little bits” I can contribute by taking the trouble to check product origin. Check at supermarkets, whether Asian specialty or not. The price on Japanese or Taiwanese or Thai items is greater, but the quality may be superior. And I have found that fresh Asian produce, grown in the United States, often comes from Chinese who have escaped the CCP and work hard to support themselves and maintain their way of life. It’s even worth questioning proprietors of Chinese restaurants. Don’t boycott just because they probably use CCP products. I don’t care if they do, if I find Falun Gong practitioners and sympathizers running the place.

    Reply
  17. Mike Bryant

    Some random thoughts.
    There are efforts underway to stop the flow of organs from China. I wonder why. It seems that the new protocols and mandates here in the USA are causing huge increases in kidney failure, myocarditis and sudden deaths. Perhaps all the sudden deaths of young athletes, actors, TV personalities, etc. etc. etc. has increased the availability of organs. Maybe that glut of fresh organs has driven prices down. Getting rid of the Chinese organs could improve the profits of our own dear Medical Industrial Complex… supply and demand, right?

    Of course, if you have not been vaccinated against COV, they just take you off the list and let you die.

    https://canadafreepress.com/article/no-jab-no-kidney-no-sense

    I guess vaxxed kidneys are reserved for vaxxed patients. The unvaxxed lady would probably demand a pure blood kidney anyway. These new protocols and mandates may not be helping patients much, but it looks like full employment for the Medical/Military Industrial Complex! The DOD ran the Covid response. It had been carefully war-gamed… that’s why it went, and is going, so well.

    At least this may stop the slaughter of freedom-loving Chinese people… for a while.

    What a tangled web…

    Reply
  18. Jeff Eardley

    Evan, every so often a great poem comes along and this is one of those. A most powerful statement on a disgusting, foul practice. It is extremely difficult to find anything not made in China these days, but I will start looking. Thank you for a most disturbing read.

    Reply

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