Draft rules on transplants ready
(eastday)
Updated: 2005-06-29 09:19

In order to regulate China's medical practice on organ transplants and protect patients' rights, it is urgent to pass legislation on brain death, transplants, organ donation and living organ donation between relatives, experts told a medical forum in the city of Shanghai yesterday.

Domestic hospitals have evaluated about 40 cases of brain death, since the Ministry of Health issued draft guidelines in 2003. Of those cases, the families of only five patients expressed a wish to donate organs.

"The guideline on brain death will set criteria to judge whether a patient is brain dead or not. The purpose is not to collect organs, but to regulate medical practices and avoid errors," said Dr Yuan Jin from Wuhan-based Tongji Hospital. "Even many Western countries with brain death laws still suffer an organ shortage."

Experts said the central government is expected to pass an organ transplant law in the near future. The ministry has finished a draft that includes definitions of both brain death and heart death.

"The organs are still useful when a patient is judged brain dead," Yuan said. "Organs can be harvested for transplants up to 10 minutes after brain death. It is meaningless to conduct organ donation or transplants after 10 minutes."

Experts said an effective solution to organ shortages is donation between relatives.

Dr Zhu Tongyu, director of urology at Shanghai's Zhongshan Hospital, said several things need to be done.

"Organ management in China is lagging behind," Zhu said. "Every hospital has a waiting list. In the West, nationwide waiting lists monitor the distribution of organs."

"Sometimes organs are wasted here because we don't have a national list of patients needing organs," the doctor added.

He said donation between relatives is the best method to solve the shortage. An average of more than 60 percent of organs come from patients' relatives in the West. It's only 4 percent in China.

In addition to the risk of such transplants, the present medical insurance system has also set barriers to living donors.

"The system doesn't cover the medical expense of the donor, who also undergoes surgery," Zhu said. "The cost is at least 10,000 yuan (US$1,205) per donor."

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