Hong Kong has an organ donor rate of only 4.2 per million people compared with 21.5 in the US and 35.1 in Spain. Ho Chung-ping, chairman of the Medical Association's organ donation committee, explains why the present campaign to increase donor rates may take decades to achieve its goal.
The number of organ donors in Hong Kong is still very low. There are a number of reasons. One of them is that the culture, not just in Hong Kong and China but all of Asia, where people do not like to talk about death. They don't want to think about it.
Traditionally, people have felt that if you mention the subject of death, it is unlucky. They are afraid. People's attitudes have improved and they are prepared to make a will, but it is confined to earthly treasures - people's homes and property - not their organs.
The idea hasn't come into our culture yet. We want to introduce the idea that people shouldn't be afraid of death. We want people to think about more than just what will happen to their possessions when they pass away.
We want them to think about what they can leave behind for people other than their relatives. We are trying to introduce this culture, but any change in culture takes a very long time. It will be a slow process.
If you look at the figures, the places with high organ donation rates are all western countries. People ask me why. My guess is that these are Christian countries. Christians are not as afraid of death, because they believe that when they pass on they will go to heaven.
Because of this, they have the courage to think of what they will leave behind. They belong to a Christian fellowship and they have an altruistic motive in that they are prepared to help someone they don't know.