China is to extend a pilot program of organ donations after cardiac death to enable more life-saving transplant surgery.

Deputy Minister of Health, Huang Jiefu, a CPPCC member and an Australian-trained liver transplant surgeon, told China Daily that there had been 200 such donations in 16 regions during the two-year trial and the system would go nationwide within the year.

"Given that the concept of brain death remains controversial and unclear among the Chinese public, and even some medics, we can only invite the organ donation after cardiac death," he said. In China, death is declared when the heart stops beating and the person is no longer breathing.