China to crack down on organ transplants

China will tighten its organ transplant rules to prevent unqualified doctors and profit-hungry hospitals from abusing patients, state media said Monday, amid concerns that prisoners have had their organs harvested without consent.

The draft regulation, which has been sent to the State Council for review, would require a new organization under the Ministry of Health to be in charge of registering and allocating all donated organs, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the regulations were expected to be passed soon, but gave no specific timetable.

Little information about China's transplant business is publicly available, and critics contend it is profit-driven with little regard for medical ethics. China has long defended the practice as legal.

Xinhua said that China's lack of clear organ transplant laws had led to transplants being carried out by "unqualified doctors with substandard medical equipment," which had caused deaths among patients.

It also said there was a popular perception that Chinese hospitals were sacrificing quality care in order to perform many costly transplants.

Under the proposed new regulations, a limited number of hospitals would be licensed to carry out transplants and the ministry would be responsible for supervising the quality of the surgeries, the report said, citing Wang Jianrong, the vice-director of the Ministry of Health's regulations department.

Human rights groups contend many organs— including those transplanted into wealthy foreigners— come from prisoners who have been executed and may not have given their permission.

Earlier in November, a health official said China routinely removes body organs from executed prisoners for transplants, but said it was only done with the prior consent of the prisoners or their families, according to a state media report