A casual hot-mic conversation about organ transplants between strongmen Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on Wednesday has sparked fresh interest in Congress to enact a ban on the practice of organ harvesting proposed by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.
In a bizarre exchange in Beijing reported by Reuters, the Russian and Chinese presidents discussed organ transplants while both were at the celebration of China's victory over Japan in World War II.
"Human organs can be continuously transplanted," Putin told Xi through a translator. "The longer you live, the younger you become, and [you can] even achieve immortality."
Xi replied through a translator: "Some predict that in this century humans may live to be 150 years old."
"This is the kind of thing [Nazi scientist] Josef Mengele would say," Smith told Newsmax on Wednesday. "And this should be a wake-up call for the Senate to finally pass my bill to outlaw organ harvesting before it happens."
The senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is the author of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, which passed the House by a margin of 406-1 in May.
"Murder masquerading as medicine" is how Smith characterized the practice of forced organ harvesting, which involves the involuntary extraction of between two and six vital internal organs in human beings. Since 1998, he has participated in or presided over hearings on the practice.
Among the provisions of Smith's bill are sanctions on practitioners of organ harvesting including making them inadmissible to the U.S. and ineligible for visas, civil penalties up to $250,000 for the practice, criminal penalties including a 20-year prison sentence, and requiring reports on forced organ harvesting and trafficking of people for organ removal.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is considered a strong supporter of the harvesting legislation, and President Donald Trump would almost certainly sign it into law if it reaches his desk.
But the stumbling block to its enactment, Capitol Hill sources told Newsmax, is Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair James Risch, R-Idaho, who has so far failed to schedule a hearing on the bill.
Given the widespread international press attention of the strange and somewhat grisly conversation between Putin and Xi, the question now is whether Risch and the committee will soon begin hearings on the organ harvesting ban.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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