Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200806/20080614/article_363209.htm
Organ transplants given a boost
Created: 2008-6-14
Author:Cai Wenjun
CROSS renal transplants have been given the green light in China, with the Ministry of Health informing 164 of the nation's qualified hospitals that they can begin carrying out the organ transplant procedures.
Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu said under new regulations on human organ transplants that took effect on May 1 last year, two families could share donors.
It means the family of a patient who received a donated kidney can then donate to any of the family members of the original kidney donor.
Huang was speaking yesterday at a conference of the China Organ Transplant Committee, a facility set up by the Ministry of Health to explain the new regulations, which also marked the launch of the third Chinese Transplant Games and the second Chinese Organ Donation Day in the city yesterday.
Huang said under previous regulations, recipients could accept organs only from their spouses, blood relatives or people with whom they had a proven close relationship.
"All hospitals should strictly follow procedures required by the regulation in order to avoid organ business and other illegal behavior," Huang said.
He also told the conference that the domestic medical industry had reached a medical definition of "brain death."
Acceptance of the brain death definition is internationally regarded as an advancement for science and society. Experts said it could help ease the current shortage of human organs for transplants.
Under a pilot program introduced in 2003, 90 people in China have donated 417 organs and corneas after being declared by doctors to be brain dead.
Huang said there are as many as 1.5 million Chinese people needing an organ transplant. There are only enough organs to perform the life-saving surgery on about 10,000 patients a year.
Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu said under new regulations on human organ transplants that took effect on May 1 last year, two families could share donors.
It means the family of a patient who received a donated kidney can then donate to any of the family members of the original kidney donor.
Huang was speaking yesterday at a conference of the China Organ Transplant Committee, a facility set up by the Ministry of Health to explain the new regulations, which also marked the launch of the third Chinese Transplant Games and the second Chinese Organ Donation Day in the city yesterday.
Huang said under previous regulations, recipients could accept organs only from their spouses, blood relatives or people with whom they had a proven close relationship.
"All hospitals should strictly follow procedures required by the regulation in order to avoid organ business and other illegal behavior," Huang said.
He also told the conference that the domestic medical industry had reached a medical definition of "brain death."
Acceptance of the brain death definition is internationally regarded as an advancement for science and society. Experts said it could help ease the current shortage of human organs for transplants.
Under a pilot program introduced in 2003, 90 people in China have donated 417 organs and corneas after being declared by doctors to be brain dead.
Huang said there are as many as 1.5 million Chinese people needing an organ transplant. There are only enough organs to perform the life-saving surgery on about 10,000 patients a year.
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