Best Prescription

Many internal medicine specialists or grass-roots doctors who still question the benefits of organ transplants are unwilling to help find potential donors among their patients. Some probably lack knowledge, but some prefer to avoid potential tensions with patients.

The organ procurement organizations, teams responsible for the evaluation and procurement of donor organs, are loosely organized or severely marginalized in many hospitals. There are no offices or full-time coordinators.

Chen Xiaosong, coordinator of Shanghai Renji Hospital, worries about finding doctors who want to teach and students interested in studying the subject. Textbooks have not yet translated into Chinese.

Hou Fengzhong, vice director of China Organ Donation Administrative Center, says despite remarkable achievements in the past 10 years, China's organ donations are still in the primary stage, requiring the whole of society to work together.

He advocates closer cooperation in legal, economic, political and medical sectors. He also suggests the Ministry of Education offer supportive policies to encourage more colleges, even middle or primary schools, to have classes on organ donation.

Liver transplant specialist Li Wenlei, head of the course in Capital Medical University, thinks education is "the best prescription" for China's organ donation.

"If organ donation is a river, then medical staff work downstream, dealing with individual cases. But when organ donation becomes a part of education, they move upstream and can influence a whole generation."