Image: (L) Volume and Issue of article from the Belmont Law Review. (R) Screenshot of “Harvesting Humans” contents page and author title.

Belmont Law Review: “Harvesting Humans” by Joanmarie Ilaria Davoli

Click HERE to read the full article, including all footnotes

In Volume 13: Issue 1: 2026 of the Belmont Law Review journal, article “Harvesting Humans” by Associate Professor Joanmarie Ilaria Davoli “first describes the history of human organ harvesting by the government of China.” It then proceeds to “explain[] the federal crimes of conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure persons or to damage property in a foreign country”, and, “[f]inally, [it] details which individuals should be immediately investigated under federal law.”

The article names individual American citizens who the author believes have violated a particular statute (conspiracy to commit murder abroad) and notes that there are grounds for them to be investigated and potentially prosecuted by the Department of Justice.

In particular, the article highlights:

Proof of the following elements is necessary in order to convict a defendant for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 956:

1. Defendant agrees with at least one person to kill, kidnap, or maim;
2. The defendant willfully joined the agreement;
3. One of the conspirators commits an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy; and
4. When the agreement was made, at least one of the conspirators was within the United States.181

American participants in the Chinese organ industry commit each element of this offense.

From the Abstract of the paper:

The background to China’s organ harvesting and the US federal crimes of conspiracy:

China continues to imprison individuals based on their religious beliefs and ethnic backgrounds, and hold these victims as crops for the Chinese body parts industry…

…

With detained Falun Gong members allegedly providing an abundant source of organs, the Chinese organ industry advertised not only availability, but special product guarantees to ensure successful transplants. One advocate against this practice asserted in a House of Representatives hearing: “Falun Gong sources were characterized as being of high quality and often available in as short a time as a week, in some cases with a guarantee of a backup organ should the first fail.”

…Chinese government began systematically oppressing the Uyghur Muslim population, including detaining huge numbers in camps. China justified internment of the Uyghurs in two ways. First, playing to an international audience sensitive to terrorism, the Chinese government claimed to be preventing terrorism by the Uyghurs. Second, the Chinese government claimed that the Uyghurs needed education and training for their own advancement.

…

The United States has long criminalized and prosecuted a wide variety of conspiracies.

…

Participants in the Chinese organ industry agree to kidnap, kill, and maim. First, as demonstrated in Part II of this Article, China currently holds Falun Gong and Uyghur Muslims in detention camps, which qualifies as kidnapping under U.S. federal law. Second, these individuals are either maimed when their organs are removed, or they are killed in order for their organs to be harvested. Anyone involved with the Chinese organ industry satisfies this first element.

…

The defendant must willingly join the agreement. In other words, the defendant must share the objectives of the agreement and must be aware that there is another person with whom the agreement is made. However, “a conspirator need not know the identity of his cohorts, but must be aware of, or consciously indifferent to, their number.” Individuals participating in the Chinese organ industry are aware that there are others conspiring with them in order to successfully locate and transplant the organ. … Because the medical community, in particular, is fully aware of the source of these organs, agreeing to participate in the Chinese organ industry demonstrates willfully joining the agreement to kill or maim victims overseas.

…

The overt act element can be any action taken by a coconspirator, no matter how small, that is in furtherance of the conspiracy. The overt act “may be a completely innocent one which indicates little or nothing of the kind of injury to society which the conspiracy seeks to bring about.” Actions that help fund, recruit, or simply facilitate the conspiracy each qualify as overt acts. Federal courts have found preparatory actions to satisfy the requirement, including maintaining a website, recruiting others, soliciting donations, purchasing supplies, supplying training, and any other action in furtherance of the conspiracy.

…

The presence of any member of the conspiracy in the United States at the time the agreement was made enables prosecution of every co conspirator. Circumstantial evidence of location is sufficient for conviction. The identity of the person in the United States need not even be proven, as long as the conspiracy involves membership in a group, such as a gang, that includes members located in the United States.

A Sample Prosecution: Daniel Asa Rose & Cousin Larry, of the non-fiction book “Larry’s Kidney“:

Author Daniel Asa Rose recounts [a] conversation between himself and his Cousin Larry as they discuss their conspiracy to have a human killed in order to harvest his kidney in the nonfiction book, Larry’s Kidney.

…

While the author expresses some minimal hope that the victim deserved to be killed as a “bad-bad criminal,” he barely flinches when he discovers the very real possibility that the individual killed was instead a practitioner of the Falun Gong…

[I]t could be argued that Rose and Cousin Larry did in fact commit a federal crime. Rose and his cousin Larry conspired to commit a murder overseas.

…

Based on the Larry’s Kidney description, it seems sufficient to prosecute Rose and his cousin Larry for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 956. There is evidence that: (1) there was an agreement to engage in criminal activity in that they intended the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought in order for the kidney retrieval; (2) Rose and Cousin Larry willfully joined the agreement; (3) they committed an overt act taken to implement the agreement, in that they bought tickets and flew to China after deliberating as to the most likely country to achieve their goal; and (4) they were both in the United States when they conspired to travel to China and buy the organ of a victim. Finally, the conspiracy is a continuing one as Rose continues to make money through sales of his book, profiting from his criminal behavior.

In regards to American accomplices:

A. Doctors and Medical Professionals

…Americans who agree to train, enable, assist, or who sell products to the Chinese organ industry have an intent to further the objectives of that conspiracy. For conviction against any of the co-conspirators outlined in this Section, the United States government does not need to demonstrate that the potential defendants concurred in every detail of the underlying objective of the conspiracy. The government does not even need to show that these American co-conspirators appreciated the full extent of the illegal enterprise. To prosecute, all that must be shown is that the Americans knew about the essential nature of the illegal organ harvesting and freely chose to become involved.

B. Hospitals and Consultants

The list of hospitals and consultant groups that may be involved with human harvesting by the Chinese Community Party includes luminaries of the American Medical community such as Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic. For example, Johns Hopkins Medicine International Global Collaborative Health Care Consulting provides training and other services for the exact Chinese hospital that happens to advertise two-week turnarounds on heart orders. As noted earlier in this Article, such order fulfillment most likely requires killing on demand. … In 2014, as China was harvesting organs of Falun Gong prisoners, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) announced their partnership with the Xiangya Hospital in China. …

C. Medical Equipment and Technology

Plentiful evidence exists that shows that the Chinese organ industry is dependent upon medical equipment, technology, and other support from sources in the United States. … Much of the market includes products designed to facilitate organ transplants, technology to facilitate data collection to find the most profitable individual to kill, and research opportunities for medical devices on those individuals without the need for informed consent. The activities of any American company that develops products, technology, or research opportunities for the Chinese organ industry constitute conduct that may implicate a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 956.

D. Brokers and Advertisers

People who recruit buyers, in addition to translators, newspapers, and platforms advertising organs for sale should be prosecuted for their involvement in the conspiracy to murder people in China. Accomplices to human harvesting include brokers who connect consumers with the killers. … An investigation by Forbes found American brokers with international connections operating in the United States and connecting customers with the Chinese organ industry. Albeit the connections involve a complicated web. The Forbes investigation profiled several organ brokers located in the United States, including James Cohan. With his marketing strategy and exorbitant promises, Cohen potentially risked accusations of consumer fraud, however none were made. “Nor, it must be noted, did the U.S. authorities subsequently charge Cohan with fraud or any other illegality—they couldn’t find a victim.” By focusing on a fraud investigation, the United States government either ignored or forgot the victims in China who were killed for their organs. Whether or not Cohan committed fraud, he likely conspired to commit murder under 18 U.S.C. 956 and should be investigated accordingly.

E. Customers

If the agreement to buy the organ occurs in the United States and any of the conspirators commit an overt act, these customers can be prosecuted under federal law.

…

[Eric DeLeon] detailed his transplant journey, conduct that would satisfy the elements of a conspiracy to commit murder overseas, on a blog he maintained until his death a year later. “DeLeon researched overseas transplant centers on the Web, chose Yeson International Healthcare in bustling Shanghai and began a blog. The liver he received last month came from a 20-year-old, doctors told him.” The broker Deleon utilized assisted other American customers… [Daniel Farley] assuages his guilt of participating in the Chinese organ industry by pretending to believe that the victim who provided his liver would have been killed even if he had not placed an order. In reality, it may have only been the victim’s “time” because the victim provided a match for customer Farley.

Click HERE to read the full article, including all footnotes