China to end use of prisoners’ organs for transplants
Beijing signals end to practice of harvesting executed prisoners' organs for medical transplants
China plans to end its controversial practice of using the organs of executed prisoners for transplants by around the middle of next year, a senior official said on Saturday.
China is the only country that still systematically takes organs from executed prisoners for use in transplant operations, a decades-long practice that has drawn widespread international criticism.
Beijing said in August it would begin to phase out the practice this month, and health officials have previously said China must stop using dead inmates’ organs to “build a positive image that benefits the country.”
By mid-next year, all hospitals licensed for organ transplants will be required to stop using organs from executed prisoners and only use those voluntarily donated and allocated through a fledging national system, said Huang Jiefu, former deputy health minister who heads the organ transplant reform.
Huang would not give an exact date except that it will be following the end of a separate campaign by the ruling Communist Party designed to get officials closer to the people, which is expected to end between May and July.
Details of the plan will be announced at a meeting of health officials and hospitals in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou later on Saturday.