China will
ban the harvesting of organs from executed criminals starting Jan. 1, 2015,
according to Huang Jiefu, chairman of the China Organ Donation and Transplant
Committee.
Speaking at
a seminar in Kunming in southwestern China's Yunnan province on Dec. 3, Huang
said the move will aggravate the serious shortage of transplant organs in the
country, as the rate of organ donors among Chinese citizens stands at only 0.6
per 1 million people, among the lowest worldwide, a far cry from the 37 per 1
million people in Spain. There are around 10,000 organ transplant surgeries
each year in China, yet there are 300,000 patients in urgent need of a donor.
In addition
to the the constraints imposed by traditional culture, which emphasizes the
need for the body to remain intact after death, Huang also blamed the low
donation rate on widespread suspicion over whether donated organs can be
utilized in an open and fair manner.
Huang noted
that there has been growing cultural acceptance of organ donation in the
country, adding that 38 organ transplant centers in Beijing as well as
Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces have stopped using organs from executed
criminals, who have previously accounted for 90% of transplant organs.
China is
the only nation in the world to carry out such a practice, which has been the
target of widespread criticism, with critics alleging that some hospitals,
doctors and judicial institutions can obtain organs under the table.
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