Organ Transplantation in The People's Republic of China

Organ transplantation in the People's Republic of China has taken place since the 1960s, and is one of the largest organ transplant programmes in the world, peaking at over 13,000 transplants a year in 2004. China is also involved in innovative transplant surgery such as face transplantation including bone.

Involuntary organ harvesting is illegal under Chinese law; though, under a 1984 regulation, it became legal to remove organs from executed criminals with the prior consent of the criminal or permission of relatives. Growing concerns about possible ethical abuses arising from coerced consent and corruption led medical groups and human rights organizations, by the 1990s, to start condemning the practice. These concerns resurfaced in 2001, when The Washington Post reported claims by a Chinese asylum-seeking doctor that he had taken part in organ extraction operations. Further, in 2006, there were claims of harvesting of organs from live practitioners of the persecuted spiritual movement Falun Gong, which led to a disputed report being compiled by former Canadian parliamentarian David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas. The report makes 17 recommendations, including that China immediately put an end to the practice. Other key recommendations include mobilizing the Canadian government and other parties to conduct their own investigations, denying or revoking the passports of people traveling to China for organ transplants, barring Chinese doctors from entering other countries to seek training in organ transplantation, and urging Chinese authorities to conduct a criminal investigation for possible prosecution. Kilgour and Matas assessed 18 different elements of proof or disproof, all of which they say are "verifiable and in most cases incontestable." One of the elements they considered was the backdrop of the current climate in China, one marked by corruption, human rights violations and a state policy of persecution against Falun Gong that includes repression, hate incitement, and massive arrests. While not revealing exact figures, the Chinese authorities have not denied the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners, and have taken steps to address international concerns regarding both the State's reliance on executed prisoners for organ donation and the illegal trading of these organs which in 2005 they acknowledged had occurred. They have consistently denied the allegations of removing organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. In 2007, China issued regulations banning the commercial trading of organs, and the Chinese Medical Association agreed that the organs of prisoners should not be used for transplantation, except for members of the immediate family of the deceased.

In 2008, a liver-transplant registry system was established in Shanghai, along with a nationwide proposal to incorporate information on individual driving permits for those wishing to donate their organs. Despite these initiatives, China Daily reported in August 2009 that approximately 65% of transplanted organs still came from death row prisoners. The condemned prisoners have been described as "not a proper source for organ transplants" by Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu, and in March 2010 he announced the trial of China's first organ donation program starting after death, jointly run by the Red Cross Society and the Ministry of Health, in 10 pilot regions.