China enlisted surgeons to execute prisoners by cutting out their hearts, new Australian research has revealed.
The Australian National University study, which examined thousands of medical papers from the communist nation, uncovered shocking secrets about China's clandestine organ harvesting trade.
The research, published in the American Journal of Transplantation, found the certified causes of death did not align with the medical procedures listed in 56 hospitals across the country.
Instead, prisoners' hearts were harvested from their chests before they were brain dead to be given to transplant recipients.
Concerned human rights advocates said the new mounting evidence 'tells a terrible tale of murder and mutilation in China' and the stories coming out of the Chinese Communist Party are 'almost too dreadful to believe'.
The study's authors - ANU PhD researcher Matthew Robertson and Israeli cardiac transplant surgeon Jacob Lavee — said their work is the first comprehensive study that 'illustrates the active role that transplant physicians in China played in this process'.
The researchers said their findings show how the process of executions appears to have transitioned from a firing squad in a field to the operating room.
'We found that the physicians became the executioners on behalf of the state, and that the method of execution was heart removal,' Mr Robertson said.
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