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China set to issue regulations on organ transplants
Beijing(China)—China will
issue its regulations on human organ transplants "soon", said an
official of the Ministry of Health (MOH). "The draft of the regulations
has been submitted to the State Council for amendment," said Wang
Jianrong, vice director of the MOH regulations department as quoted in
Monday's Guangming Daily.
Under the new regulations, a new organization will be in charge of
registering and allocating donated organs, and evaluating the quality of
the organ transplant surgery. Only the top-tier hospitals - usually
located in provincial capitals - will be allowed to perform organ
transplants once they have been approved by the MOH. It remains to be
seen whether exceptions will be made in emergency cases.
Currently, China has no clear laws on human organ transplants. This has
resulted in transplants being carried out by unqualified doctors with
substandard medical equipment, leading to the death of some patients. It
is also widely claimed that hospitals are preoccupied with the quantity
of organ transplants rather than the quality. "The MOH will strictly
control the number of hospitals licensed to perform organ transplants
and supervise the quality of the surgery," said Wang Jianrong.
Ministry of Health statistics indicate that China performed 34,726 organ
transplants from 2000 to 2004, and at the end of 2004,599 medical
institutions did liver, kidney, heart and lung transplants. Though organ
transplants have been performed in China for 40 years, the absence of
laws concerning organ transplants and irregular organ transplant
practices in some medical institutions have hindered the promotion of
organ transplants in the country,
Huang Jiefu, Vice Minister of Health, told a conference on the
management of organ transplants held in Guangzhou recently. Meanwhile,
China is still suffering a serious shortage of human organ donations.
"About 1.5 million people in China need transplants each year, but only
around 10,000 operations can be carried out due to organ shortages,"
—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item |
