Organ donation system to reduce trafficking

The government says 65 percent of donor organs come from death row inmates.

By Han Manman

A new national organ donation system started Wednesday is hoped to shake off the country’s dependence on parts harvested from executed prisoners as the main soure of transplants, and to crack down on organ trafficking.

Ten municipalities and provinces including Shanghai, Guangdong and Tianjin will take part in a pilot program to better manage organ donations and ensure patients who most need a transplant can get one.

The pilot will test a new administration system with clear rule on organ recipients, enhanced post-surgery visits and subsidies for poor recipients.

The system, run by the national and provincial Red Cross, will follow international practices for open, fair and impartial organ management and should help reduce the black market for body parts, Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu said.

Currently, 1 million people in China need organ transplants each year: 1 percent receives one. Only about 130 people have signed up to donate their organs since 2003, according to research on post-mortem donations by Chen Zhonghua, a professor at the Institute of Organ Transplantations at Tongji Hospital.

“Tat is far from enough to meet demand,” Chen said.

The majority of transplanted organs come from executed prisoners, Huang told the China Daily Wednesday. His interview was a rare official admission of the dubious source of China’s donor organs. Huang said 65 percent of donations come from death row inmates.

But they are “definitely not a proper source for organ transplants,” Huang said.

Voluntary donations remain far below demand in China, partly because of cultural biases against organ removal before burial.

“The huge shortage of organ donors and organs has created a significant black market for organs despite a national law that bans organ traffickng, which in turn has ruined public faith and willingness to donate organs,” Chen said.

Chen said transplant efforts were hampered not only by a lack of donors but also by the lack of a system to match organs with recipients. As a result, only a fraction of viable organs are used.

Under the new system, all hospitals must report their patients and demands for organs to the provincial Red Cross, which will identify the most suitable recipient when an organ is available. Previously, the hospitals decided who got each organ, and the recipient was often decided by bribery rather than need.

Fan Jia, a liver transplant expert and vice president of Shanghai’s Zhongshan Hospital, supports the system.

“A national system can better regulate the source and use of organs,” he said

“Key organs like the liver must be taken within 5 minutes of the heart’s last beat. Otherwise,hey become useless,” Fan said. “The new system means we can get information from a wider range of hospitals about possible donors.

He said China has no laws allowing organs to be harvested from brain-dead patients; doctors must wait for the heart to stop. The Ministry of Health is now considering standards for brain death, which could open up a greater source for donor organs.