Memo #213
By Josh Rudolph -josh [at] chinadigitaltimes.net
At a WHO conference in 2005, China’s vice-minister of health Huang Jiefu became the first public official to admit the country’s reliance on organs from executed inmates, and promised a transition to a voluntary donation system. A pilot for such a system has established a donation network set to expand this year, fixing the disorderly arrangements that have long been criticized by international health and human rights organizations.
While more than 1 million people wait for an organ at any given time, China’s Ministry of Health claims that only 10,000 transplants occur each year. In 2009, 65 percent of organs came from post-mortem extraction, the remaining 35 percent from live donors—another controversy in itself. Ninety percent of post-mortem extractions in China—already infamous for its practice of capital punishment—come from executed prisoners.
Building a nationwide donor network requires policies that fit the country’s legal, ethical and cultural conditions. Key to the program is the China Organ Transplant Response System, a national computerized network managed by the Red Cross Society of China. As socioeconomic inequality widens, distrust of those rich in cash or connections grows; along with management by the Red Cross, a government-approved third-party, this new registry aims to prevent privilege from influencing the allocation process. Another important feature of the pilot is the licensing of institutions fit to perform surgeries.
While the policy framework has been under construction since 2007, the pilot was launched in 19 regions and provinces in 2010. Since then, the Red Cross has worked to set up a financial relief fund for the families of volunteer donors, and has been running public awareness campaigns—while traditional beliefs were once thought to inhibit willingness to donate, recent surveys have proven otherwise.
From the systematic use of death-row organs, to the thriving black market making the country a popular stop on the medical tourism circuit, China’s organ transplant system has long attracted criticism. After years in formation, a donation system capable of bringing China into compliance with global ethical and medical norms while meeting the unique demands of the country is now set to be rolled out nationwide.
About the Author:
Josh Rudolph is an MA student at the Institute of Asian Research, where he focuses on media policy and the changing media landscape in the Asia Pacific. He is also a contributing blogger at China Digital Times (chinadigitaltimes.net).
(Source: China.org.cn)
Links:
- “Pragmatic Solution for Organ Donation in Response to Challenges Faced by the Chinese Society: Summary for the National Donation After Circulatory Death Pilot Program”, 2013, (by Huang Jiefu)
- A Pilot Programme of Organ Donation After Cardiac Death in China (by Dr. Huang Jiefu, et al.), 2011
- Sow Change, Harvest Hope, 2012 (by Wang Qingfeng and Can Xin)
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