Organ Transplantation in The People's Republic of China - Developments Since 2006

Developments Since 2006

In March 2006, the Ministry of Health issued the Interim Provisions on Clinical Application and Management of Human Organ Transplantation, which stipulated that medical centres must meet new requirements for transplant services; the provinces were made responsible for plans for clinical applications. Establishments performing transplantation were thereby obliged to incorporate considerations for ethics, medical and surgical expertise, and intensive care. In April 2006, the Committee of Clinical Application of Human Organ Transplantation Technologies was created to standardise clinical practice; a national summit on clinical management took place in November 2006 which issued a declaration outlining regulatory steps. Professor Guo Shuzhong conducted a series of face transplant experiments in Xijing hospital, leading in April 2006 to the world’s first face transplant that included bone. The donor had been declared brain-dead before the operation.

In May 2007 the Regulation on Human Organ Transplantation came into force, banning organ trading and the removal of a person's organs without their prior written consent, and this has been favourably received by the World Health Organization and The Transplantation Society. To curb illegal transplants, doctors involved in commercial trade of organs will face fines and suspensions; only a few hospitals will be certified to perform organ transplants. As a result of a systematic overhaul, the number of institutions approved for transplants has been reduced from more than 600 in 2007 to 87 as at October 2008; another 77 have received provisional approval from the Ministry of Health.

To further combat transplant tourism, the Health Ministry issued a notice in July 2007 in line with the Istanbul Declaration, giving Chinese citizens priority as organ recipients. In October 2007, after several years of discussions with the WHO, the Chinese Medical Association agreed to cease commercial organ collection from condemned prisoners, who would only be able to donate to their immediate relatives. Other safeguards implemented under the legislation include documentation of consent for organ removal from the donor, and review of all death sentences by the Supreme People’s Court. Transplant professionals are not involved until death is declared. A symposium among legal and medical professionals was held in April 2008 to discuss the diagnostic criteria for brain death for donors of transplant organs.

A liver-transplant registry system was established in Shanghai, in 2008, which allows the monitoring of the after-care of liver recipients; at the same time a nationwide proposal was announced that would allow people to note on their driving licence that they wish to donate their organs. Despite these initiatives the China Daily newspaper reported in August 2009 that approximately 65% of transplanted organs still came from death row prisoners, which has been described as "not a proper source for organ transplants" by Vice-Health Minister Huang Jiefu. China's first posthumous organ donation system was jointly launched in March 2010 by the Red Cross and the Ministry of Health. Huang Jiefu announced that the scheme, which will allow people to express their wishes on their driver’s licences, would be trialled in 10 pilot regions including the cities of Tianjin, Wuhan and Shenzhen. Funds will be made available for the families of people who voluntarily donate their organs. Chinese authorities say they hope the pilot program's success will reduce the need to take organs from death row prisoners and stem the tide of black market organs. In 2012 China officials stated they plan to phase out organ harvesting of death-row inmates.

In September 2012, the report "Organ Harvesting of Religious and Political Dissidents by the Chinese Communist Party" presented to the members of a US Congress Subcommittee by Damon Noto, the spokesperson for the organization Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, opined: "Medical doctors outside China have confirmed that their patients have gone to China and received organs from Falun Gong practitioners".

After the congressional hearing on 12 September 2012, Congressmen Robert Andrews and Chris Smith have initiated a bipartisan letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asking for information that the Department of State might have about the organ harvesting practices in China. They asked their fellow House members to co-sign the letter to Clinton which states that “serious allegations suggest unimaginable abuses have occurred” in the practice of organ transplantation in China. Out of a total House membership of 435, 106 representatives from 33 states signed the letter, as of 3 October when sponsorship closed.On the next day at a rally in Fairfax, Va., President Barack Obama accepted a letter apprizing him of the contents of the House letter, said Karen Gao, who delivered the letter on behalf of the Falun Dafa Association of Washington, D.C. It asks the president for his support in having the State Department release important documents, which, the association’s letter says, “may be instrumental in helping put an end to the atrocity that has been referred to as ‘a new form of evil on this planet.’”

on 5 November 2012, the organization'Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvest' stated in a press release in response to the announcement of Dr. Haibo Wang in the Bulletin of the WHO to phase out the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners, that, phasing out a crime against humanity remains a crime until it has completely ended. 'If we applaud the recent announcements by Dr. Haibo Wang, we actually risk to lose our responsibility for all those who are still being killed for their organs', they stated.