Shanghai balks at organ donation

Transplant organs are in short supply

By Duncan Hewitt in Shanghai

Local legislators in the Chinese city of Shanghai have delayed a vote on a proposal to allow organ donations from corpses because of fears that this could encourage the smuggling of human organs.

In an unusual move, members of the city's People's Congress postponed the vote after some warned that there was a lack of laws governing the use of organs in China.

The bill was originally intended to overcome a chronic shortage of human corpses for medical research.

It was designed simply to regulate the donation of corpses for medical research.

Corpse shortage

Doctors say the shortage has arisen because of traditional Chinese beliefs that the body should be kept intact even after death.

Only 220 bodies a year are offered for research in Shanghai

Shanghai, for example, needs 720 bodies per year for research purposes, but receives only 220, according to the city's Health Bureau, which says this is hampering research.

But disputes erupted after some doctors proposed expanding the draft bill to cover the use of donated bodies as sources of organs for transplant.

Legislators from the legal profession warned that this could be dangerous, as Chinese law lacks specific provisions concerning crimes involving the sale of human organs.

'Global problem'

One law professor said the proposed bill could open the door to crimes such as organ smuggling.

Many countries lack organs for transplant

He said this was now a serious global problem.

But another legislator, the head of Shanghai's East China Hospital, said promoting organ transplants would save lives and that there was an urgent need for organs such as kidneys.

The draft bill will now be debated again next month.

The Chinese government has always strenuously denied claims that some officials have colluded in an illegal trade in human organs.

It has also denied allegations that convicts have been executed to provide "organs to order".

But one official newspaper last month reported that a Chinese website was offering human organs for sale and the Shanghai debate reflects heightened concern about this issue.