Posted on 11/27/2006 7:55:05 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
China to establish bureau to oversee organ transplants
Mon Nov 27, 7:41 AM ET
China will establish a new government body to oversee the registration and allocation of donated organs for transplants, amid widespread controversy in the field.
New regulations on human organ transplants will be issued "soon", mandating the establishment of the new body, Xinhua news agency reported Monday, citing comments by Wang Jianrong, a vice director at the ministry of health.
On July 1, China issued regulations on the buying and selling of human organs for transplant following widespread accusations over a black market trade in organs harvested from executed prisoners or taken from dead patients without their prior consent.
"Currently, China has no clear laws on human organ transplants," Xinhua said.
"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 article further lambasted the practice of giving foreign patients priority in transplant operations due to the higher fees hospitals can charge them.
But it was unclear if the new regulations would address this issue.
China performed 34,726 organ transplants from 2000 to 2004, the report said citing the health ministry. By the end of 2004, 599 medical institutions were performing liver, kidney, heart and lung transplants.
"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," it said.
International human rights groups have long accused China's medical industry of harvesting organs from executed prisoners for transplant without the consent of the prisoner of his or her family.
Hospitals have also been regularly accused of secretly taking organs from road accident victims and other dead patients without telling family members.
Families are traditionally opposed to donating organs of deceased relatives due to long-standing beliefs on keeping the body intact, it said.
All your organs are belong to us, ping!
China's Execution Bus and Organ transplants
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWLZ5Bq0ZWw
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