The Ministry of Health has denied that organs are regularly taken from executed prisoners for transplant on the mainland and described overseas media reports to that effect as slander.

'There are few cases of utilisation of executed prisoners' organs,' ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said. 'The main source of China's transplanted organs is voluntary donations.'

Leading transplant surgeon Chen Zhonghua, from Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, said last month that 99 per cent of organs transplanted in China came from executed prisoners.