Wang Yuanyuan

    cheekywang@hotmail.com

    CHINA plans to improve its organ donation and distribution system to better ensure the safety of organ donors and receivers, and to gradually scrap the use of executed prisoners’ organs for transplants.

    The national system was implemented in 2011 and has helped 626 patients so far. After the system is fully completed, all donated organs should be distributed through the system. The system keeps a tracing record of transplanted organs and any organ transaction outside the system is illegal.

    “It may take a long time to build an efficient system due to the big challenges with organ donations in China, but we hope new legislation related to brain death in China can help us achieve our goals in five to 10 years,” Huang Jiefu, a professor of surgery at Peking Union Medical College and director of the national Organ Transplantation Committee, said Saturday.

    Huang was speaking at the 1st China Organ Procurement Organization International Forum, held in Shenzhen.

    “The biggest problem with China’s organ donation system is gaining organs. For years, China has relied on organs donated by executed prisoners,” he said. “This has been criticized widely by the international community.”

    The fundamental principle that organs must be given freely and without coercion was affirmed by the Declaration of Istanbul.

    China’s regulations allow organs of executed prisoners to be transplanted if the prisoner’s body remains unclaimed, or with the prisoners’ or families’ permission.

    The unreliable medical histories of many executed prisoners also concerns and raises doubts among the international society, Huang said.

    He added that China won’t continue using prisoners’ organs much longer.

    “Firstly, China plans to gradually cancel the use of prisoners’ organs. This is a move required by both domestic society and international society,” he said.

    Moreover, China also plans to gradually scrap the death penalty. The number of criminals being sentenced to death in the country has decreased annually since 2007.

    In 2011, the Supreme Court canceled death penalties for 13 crimes but added the death penalty for one: organ trading, particularly exporting organs overseas.

    “These moves are clear signs for China’s future development and mean there will be fewer and fewer organs provided by prisoners. As organ transplant experts, we have to find and carry out a more effective way to save patients who need organs,” Huang said.

    According to statistics given at the forum, there are about 300,000 patients waiting for organs in China, but organs are readily available for only about 10,000 patients — most of those organs have been donated by prisoners.

    In countries including the United States and United Kingdom, one in about every three patients who need organs can receive organ transplants in time.

    Promoting organ donations in China still faces serious challenges.

    “At present, most Chinese people, particularly the elderly, are strongly opposed to the idea of donating organs after death because of traditional concepts and a lack of understanding,” said He Xiaoshun, director of the organ transplant department at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

    “In China, one is dead only after his or her heart stops beating. However, the best time for organ transplantation surgery is after brain death, but this is not acceptable, particularly by their senior family members,” He said.

    The shortage of organs also boosts the million-dollar business of organ trading.

    “It is hard to quantify the amount of money involved in illegal organ trading every year in China, but most Chinese people read the news about a young college student selling his kidney for an iPhone and iPad,” Huang said. “A transparent system for the donation and distribution of organs is very important because it is a foundation to build people’s trust in organ donation.”

    Hospitals are encouraged to promote organ donations.

    All 3A hospitals in the country will launch organ donation services under new regulations, and those services will be included in hospitals’ annual evaluation.

    “If a hospital can use the system to donate organs for 10 transplant surgeries, the hospital will gain the qualification of opening transplant surgeries, while those which don’t make efforts in organ donation will be punished,” Huang said.

    A total of 164 hospitals currently are qualified to conduct human organ transplants, but China needs about 300 such hospitals to meet demand.