China launches pilot human organ donation to block illegal sales of organs

Zhejiang Province announced on the 26th that three pilot cities in Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou have officially launched human organ donation trials.

China plans to launch a trial of human organ donation in 11 provinces and cities in eastern China, including Zhejiang, this year. The official hopes to create a human organ donation system to bring happiness to a large number of patients in China who are struggling to wait for organ donors, and hopes to crack down on illegal trade in organs.

Entrusted by the Ministry of Health, the Chinese Red Cross Society plans to conduct organ donation mobilization in 11 provinces and cities including Tianjin, Liaoning, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan, Xiamen, Nanjing and Wuhan during the year. And assign pilots. As a non-governmental organization, the agency will supervise and witness the process of organ donation and transplantation. This mode of operation is the first of its kind in the world.

Before Zhejiang, Guangdong, Liaoning and other provinces took the lead in announcing the launch of this pilot project. "This means that human organ donation begins to get rid of the disorder of the past and establishes a human organ donation and distribution system that is independent of organ transplant medical services," said Qiao Shanchun, vice president of the Red Cross Society of Dalian, Liaoning Province.

At present, the pilot work on human organ donation conducted in China refers to organ donations that are directed to the general public after their death and do not involve the donation of living organs. In principle, organs or tissues with good function, no infection with AIDS or other serious infectious diseases, and no cancer (except primary brain tumors) are generally suitable for organ donation.

The Zhejiang Red Cross Society introduced: All organ donors must meet the three conditions of voluntary, gratuitous, and death. Individuals who are willing to donate organs and remains can apply for registration of organ donations before their lifetime. If they are not registered, their spouses, adult children and parents may also donate their organs and bodies in writing after they die.

After the death of the donor, the doctor initiates a donation process to transplant the organs that the donor can still use to those patients who are in urgent need of transplants to save more lives. The body of the organ donor after the donation is completed will be treated by the hospital in an ethical manner to restore the original appearance of the body.

It is worth mentioning that this trial included the controversial “brain death” in the category of organ donors. Organs donated by brain-dead victims will be more likely to meet the conditions for organ transplantation and increase the success rate of transplantation. Currently, more than 90 countries around the world have classified brain death as a category of death.

Yang Jing, head of the Department of Health of Zhejiang Province, said that at present, China has become the second largest organ transplant country after the USA. However, due to the lack of well-established systems for donation, distribution and management of human organs, the contradiction between supply and demand for organs is very prominent.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, about 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants every year, but only 10,000 people are able to undergo transplant surgery each year, and organ shortage is the main reason. Gao Xiang, deputy director of the Human Organ Donation Committee of Zhejiang Province and full-time vice chairman of the Provincial Red Cross Society, said that the ratio between waiters and organ donors in the United States is 5:1, in the United Kingdom it is 3:1, and in China up to 150: 1, the difference is very wide.

“Many patients in China are leaving this world in anxious and bitter waits.” Zheng Shusen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a well-known liver transplant expert, said that the success rate of organ transplants in the liver in China has reached foreign levels, but there is a shortage of organ donors. However, it has severely restricted the smooth development of organ transplants. In the ward of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University Medical School he managed, there are now more than 50 patients waiting for liver transplantation.

"China has always lacked a unified national organ donation system and has not yet established an organ source that meets the medical ethics that are universally recognized by the world's transplant community." Huang Jiefu, deputy director of the Ministry of Health, said that this makes it difficult to ensure the quality of organs provided to patients in China. To a certain extent, it has also led to illegal sales of organs, which have continued to be banned in some places.

Huang Jiefu also stated that unlike other new medical technologies, organ transplantation involves deep-rooted issues such as social ethics, politics, culture, and religion, and is more complex than the application of any new technology in medicine.

In the past, a small number of enthusiastic people also suffered donations. According to statistics, as of the end of June 2009, a total of 67,800 people were donated by the Red Cross Society across the country. Most of them were civil servants and medical workers, of whom only 0.84 million were willing to donate.

“Lack of relevant regulations is the key.” Zhang Pingping, deputy director of the Department of Medical Affairs of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Health, said that in May 2007, the State Council promulgated the “Regulations on Human Organ Transplantation” and clearly put forward the goal of “the establishment of a national human organ transplantation system”. It indicates that China’s organ transplant business is entering a critical period of standard development, but it does not involve specific issues such as how to establish and operate the donation system.

The establishment of human organ donation system will be expected to effectively regulate this industry. Huang Jiefu stated that China has many deaths due to traffic accidents, cerebrovascular diseases, brain tumors, etc., but most of the bodies don't donate their organs. Huang Jiefu said that as long as there are 1/10 or 1/20 of them donated, The demand for organ transplantation can be met, and the cost of transplantation will be greatly reduced. This will greatly reduce living donations that have adverse effects on physical health and illegal organ sales.

Next:Installation, use and regulation of marine diesel generator sets
Previous:The Ministry of Health investigated the cause of the lock-in of Nanjing Lobster as a bottleneck