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China outlaws organ sales
28/03/2006 12:38 - (SA)
Shanghai - China's health ministry has explicitly banned sales of human organs in an apparent attempt to clean up the country's lucrative but laxly regulated transplant business.
New regulations viewed on the health ministry's website on Tuesday forbid the buying and selling of organs and reiterate the requirement that donors give written permission for their organs to be transplanted.
While China has long defended its transplant business as legal, little information is publicly available about it. Critics contend it is profit-driven with little regard for medical ethics.
The true number of transplants carried out annually isn't known, although a professional group, the Chinese Society of Transplantation, says about 5 000 kidney transplants and 1 500 liver transplants were carried out in 2003.
Surgery limited
Human rights groups say many organs - including those transplanted into wealthy foreigners - come from executed prisoners who may not have given their permission. Voluntary donations remain far below demand, partly because of cultural biases against organ removal.
Safety concerns about the transplant industry have also surfaced. Last month, Japan announced it was examining cases involving at least eight Japanese patients who received organ transplants in China and later fell seriously ill or died from infections and other problems after returning home.
The new Chinese rules, to go into effect on July 1, limit transplant surgery to top-ranked institutions that must verify the organs are from legal sources and that surgery is safe and justified.
Transplant hospitals must keep specialists on staff and have all the required medical equipment, the rules say. Hospital transplant ethics committees must approve all such surgeries in advance, and institutions where patients die shortly after having transplants will be banned from conducting such surgeries.
"The rule explicitly states that human organs cannot be bought or sold; medical institutions must obtain written permission from donors for any transplant of organs for clinical purposes; donors have the right to refuse to donate organs prior to the organ transplant," the ministry said in an introduction to the rules.
The rules "aim to organise and strengthen management of human organ transplant technology for clinical use, assure the quality and safety of treatment and protect patient health," it said.
Chinese legislators have been pushing for years for a law to regulate and promote voluntary organ donations. However, the Health Ministry regulation was officially titled a "temporary regulation," suggesting that further legislation could follow.
- AP
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