Heartfelt gifts of life (3)

Reform program

The MOH launched a series of reforms for organ donations and transplants and the State Council published its Regulation on Human Organ Transplant in 2007. In 2012, the organ transplant pilot project had expanded to 19 provinces and municipalities. Last September, the MOH and the Red Cross Society of China met in Tianjin discussing how to further expand the pilot program.

"It is important to establish an organ donation system which conforms to social ethics and the sustainable development of China's society," the vice minister of health, Huang Jiefu, said at the meeting.

On December 11, 2012, the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau and the Shanghai Branch of the Red Cross Society of China launched a pilot organ donation program at 17 major city hospitals. Previously, only cornea transplants could be performed and donated bodies could only be left for medical research.

Since the program was launched, around 1,100 people had completed organ donation forms, said Li Minglei, the director of the Organ Donation Office at the Shanghai Red Cross.

Fair distribution

Zhu Tongyu is the vice president of Zhongshan Hospital and a transplant expert. He believes that the key to the reform is to establish a transparent and fair organ distribution system as soon as possible.

As a doctor who carries out hundreds of transplants every year, Zhu is very aware of the possibility of profit-mongering if the system leaves any room for this. "It is important to ensure that all patients have equal opportunities and that we exclude any other factors that might affect the fair distribution of organs."

Red Cross director Li said that Shanghai has now set up a comprehensive system from organ donation to distribution and this is managed by the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau and the Shanghai Red Cross.

Now patients seeking transplant organs have to be registered and assessed at set centers to decide whether they are suitable recipients. Their names then go into a database in Shanghai and they will wait their turn. The system, designed by the University of Hong Kong in 2009 and introduced to the country in 2011, guarantees that transplant organs are given to patients deemed medically most in need.

The system also ensures that neither the donors nor the doctors who perform the transplants can decide on the order of recipients, making it impossible for unscrupulous people to profit.

"We still have many obstacles to overcome. Many people don't accept organ donations and some family members change their minds at the last moment," Li said. "It is a work that needs understanding and involvement from everyone. We have a long way to go."

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