Human organ ban trade takes effect
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-07-01 22:01 The purchase and sale of
human organs are now banned in China after a new regulation came into effect on
Saturday.
Strict rules have also been imposed on human organ transplants in response to
fierce overseas criticism of China's transplant industry.
Hospitals will be banned from taking organs without written consent from the
donors, who are entitled to withdraw their decision at the last minute,
according to the regulation.
The regulation was drawn up and made public in March 2006.
Only Class Three A hospitals - China's top ranking comprehensive hospitals -
can apply for transplant licenses. And the hospitals are required to have
doctors with clinical organ transplant qualifications.
Qualified doctors, however, are banned from operating in unlicensed clinics,
it added.
Clinics and hospitals must submit operation documents to their transplant
ethnics committee for approval. Doctors should tell the committee the source of
the harvested organ and whether it is a suitable match for the recipient.
It is estimated that two million Chinese people need transplants each year,
but only 20,000 operations are conducted because of a shortage of organs.
Foreign media have reported that organs for transplant in China have been
taken from executed criminals, but the Ministry of Health has repeatedly denied
the claim, saying such reports were "untrue" and "malicious slander" of China's
judiciary system.
"Most organs in China have been voluntarily donated by ordinary citizens on
their death, and a small number are from executed criminals who voluntarily
signed donation approvals," ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an said
earlier.
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