Two-thirds of China's organ transplants from executed prisoners

Aug 26, 2009, 8:36 GMT

   Beijing - About two-thirds of China's transplanted organs still come from executed prisoners despite government efforts to build a system of public donors for the 1 million people awaiting transplants, state media said on Wednesday.

   The government aimed to 'gradually shake off its long-time dependence on executed prisoners' who were 'not a proper source for organ transplants,' the official China Daily quoted Vice-Minister of Health Huang Jiefu as saying.

   Just 130 people had signed up to organ donation schemes since 2003, the newspaper quoted Chen Zhonghua of the Institute of Organ Transplantation at Beijing's Tongji Hospital as saying.

   About 1 million Chinese citizens need organ transplants but only about 1 per cent of them receive transplants each year, it said.

   The health ministry launched a new national scheme for organ donation under the Chinese Red Cross this week, which also aims to curb organ trafficking, Huang said.

   'The system is in the public interest and will benefit patients regardless of social status and wealth in terms of fairness in organ allocation and better procurement,' he was quoted as saying.

   'Transplants should not be a privilege for the rich,' Huang said, apparently responding to public criticism of the current system.

   Huang admitted that some hospitals 'ignore legal procedures' to make a profit from the organs of executed prisoners.

   For example, organ donors were sometimes persuaded to sign documents claiming they were relatives of or 'emotionally connected' to wealthy transplant recipients, the newspaper said.

   It said the new system was also designed to prevent 'transplant tourism,' where wealthy foreign patients paid for transplants in Chinese hospitals.

   China banned the commercial trade of human organs in 2006 and required written consent from organ donors.

   It caries out an estimated 8,000 executions a year, more than the rest of the world combined.