China’s organ transplant system feted despite doubts

Marianne BARRIAUX

ust a few years ago, China was persona non grata in the transplantation world over its use of organs from executed inmates, some of them prisoners of conscience.

But at the Transplantation Society’s annual congress in Madrid this week, the tables turned as 150 Chinese experts took part — an unprecedented number — and one-time critics endorsed the country’s organ donation system despite allegations it is far from transparent.

“That couldn’t happen just a few years ago,” said Francis Delmonico, a high-profile US transplant surgeon and former president of the society.

The transplant society used to ban Chinese experts in the field from giving presentations at annual conferences, he told reporters at a press conference organised by the Chinese embassy in Madrid.

“The fact that there are so many Chinese professionals here reporting their experience is a very important testimony of the evolution of China,” Delmonico added. China banned the use of executed prisoners’ organs in 2015 and has set up a nationwide voluntary donation system instead.

But there are fears the practice goes on, with prisoners being reclassified as voluntary donors to get around the rules.

Huang Jiefu, the man in charge of overhauling China’s transplant system, strongly denies this and says there is zero tolerance now.

He nevertheless admitted at a conference last year at the Vatican that organ transplants from prisoners may still be taking place.

“China is a big country with a 1.3 billion population so I am sure, definitely, there is some violation of the law,” he said.

There are currently 178 hospitals for organ transplants in China.

Last year China completed more than 16,000 transplants, ranking it second in the world behind the United States, according to an official statement handed out at the press conference.

But in a report that examined transplant hospitals’ bed counts, bed utilisation rates, revenue, state funding and more, the China Organ Harvest Research Centre, which has long scrutinised the issue, claimed there are thousands more being performed. China initiated its voluntary organ donation system in 2010 and rolled it out nationwide in 2013.

“Official accounts indicate that the percentage of organs sourced from donations jumped from 23 per cent in 2013 to 80 per cent in 2014, with voluntary donations officially becoming the sole official organ source in 2015,” the centre said in a report. — AFP