By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-11 07:17

Health authorities are setting clinical criteria on brain death to facilitate human organ transplants, a senior official said Wednesday.

A panel of medical and ethical experts have been convened to define brain death and associated clinical rules, Mao Qun'an, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, revealed.

"But it's still early to make legislation," Mao told a regular press conference, apparently contradicting recent media reports that a law on brain death is being framed.

Huang Jiefu, vice-minister of health and a liver transplant specialist, earlier told the China Organ Transplant forum that the definition of brain death is key to legislation.

He stressed that once criteria are set, it represents huge medical progress, especially for its potential to ease a shortage of human organs for transplants.

Two million Chinese need organ transplants each year and a great many die waiting, official figures show. Only 20,000 operations are conducted yearly.

Many Western countries have adopted the concept of brain death - defined by the absence of brain-stem reflex, no evidence of breathing and a total lack of consciousness.

For most Chinese, human life ends with the last breath and heartbeat, Mao noted - and the deep-rooted notion certainly helped Hong Kong Phoenix TV anchorwoman Liu Hairuo.

In 2002, she was diagnosed as brain dead when in a coma in England after a train accident

But she was miraculously saved in Beijing following treatment with a combination of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine.

According to the current Chinese legal definition of death - 15 minutes after the cessation of the heartbeat and breathing - organs are irreparably damaged and can no longer be used for transplants, according to medical experts.

In a related development, legislation on psychological health is underway, Mao told the conference Wednesday, the World Mental Health Day.

Without timely and proper intervention, mental problems may incur huge losses, and lead to suicide, Mao noted.

About 287,000 people end their own lives every year in China, according to official estimates. Psychological problems, including stress and depression, cause nearly 70 percent of the total suicide cases.