Organ donation more acceptable for Chinese

As many as 1,125 volunteers in the province have registered to donate their organs after they pass away, according to the branch.

"A full-body donation can cure nearly 100 patients via tissue or organ transplants, while a pair of corneas alone can help six to eight patients with eye diseases recover," said Dai.

"A total of 1,804 organ donations have been recorded since the trial project started three years ago, with an increasing number of voluntary organ donations," according to the RCSC.

Relevant regulations on human organ donations have been enacted by local legislatures, including the provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian, as well as Shanghai and Tianjin municipalities.

The Human Body Donation Regulation was enacted by local legislatures in Jiangxi Province and North China's Tianjin municipality at their annual sessions held earlier this year. The regulation came into effect on March 1.

According to the regulation, the immediate relatives of a person can make donation decisions if the deceased has not stated before death whether or not his or her body can be donated. If a person requests that his or her organs be donated after death, the relatives are not allowed to interfere.

Statistics from the former MOH show that about 1.5 million Chinese people need organ transplants, but only around 10,000 transplants are performed annually due to a lack of donors.

Zhao Baige, executive vice-president of the RCSC, said the donation project should be extended to all provinces before the end of the year.

Zhao said relevant departments will build an information platform for organ donations, revise related laws, train staff, regulate donation funds and establish a sound supervision system.

"The transformation of people's ideologies will definitely boost the number of body donors," Dai said.

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