Some 34 articles regulating human organ donation and
transplantation are now in effect in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong
Province.
After being discussed and amended three times at the 26th
session of the 3rd Standing Committee of the Municipal People's
Congress, the draft regulations -- a first for China -- were passed
at 5 p.m. Friday.
The adopted version includes more detailed stipulations
regarding donor's rights. Specifically, in living organ donations
the recipient coverage has been enlarged to non-relative
patients.
According to an earlier draft, only the donor's relatives had
the right to receive living organs donation.
However, for persons under 18 years old, the donation criteria
have been narrowed. They are only permitted to donate organs to
their relatives. The earlier draft allowed them to donate to
unrelated persons after getting permission from their
guardians.
"That's for the better protection of the youth's right," said
Wang Pengfei with the standing committee of the Shenzhen municipal
people's congress.
The local Red Cross Association is set to bridge donors and
recipients, which means it will be responsible collecting the
donor's will and private information and arranging the timetable
for the operation.
However, the new rules clearly define the order for matching
donors and recipients as "first come, first served."
The order will strictly abide by the natural registration order
of the patients, and only if the first eligible recipient is
unsuitable for the operation will the next in line receive the
donated organ. Violators will be fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,210)
fine.
The new regulations stem from the encouraging response to a call
for cornea donations four years ago, said Wang.
Meanwhile, a plan to use driver's licenses as a means for
registering organ donors has been abandoned.
In some western countries traffic accidents have become the
primary source of donated organs, but for the time being that won't
be the case in China.
"We need time for the people to accept the concept,'' said Wang.
"We Chinese are very likely to think it unlucky to include a
'death' item on a driving license."
(China Daily August 23, 2003)