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.
(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2006)