Doubts over Chinese ban on prisoner organ harvesting

China has banned the harvesting of transplant organs from executed prisoners, a senior official said, but international medical practitioners warn inmates’ body parts may simply be reclassified as “donations”. High demand for organs in China and a chronic shortage of donations mean death row inmates have been a key source for years, generating heated controversy.

China’s organ donation industry has entered a new stage of development in which voluntary donation will be the only source of organs.

Huang Jiefu, head of the China Organ Donation Committee, in an interview with China Business News published Tuesday

Experts have voiced scepticism about the pledge saying “current statements from China have a disconcerting sense of deja vu”. China banned trading in human organs in 2007, but demand for transplants far exceeds supply in the country of 1.37 billion people. Organ donation is not widespread as many Chinese believe they will be reincarnated after death and therefore feel the need to keep a complete body.

China has avoided the end of use of organs from executed prisoners for a long time, with failed promises dating back to 2008.

A letter to The Lancet by a group of five medical professionals from the United States, UK and Australia

Asia-Pacific