Health authorities are setting clinical criteria on brain death to facilitate human organ transplants, a senior official said yesterday.
A panel of medical and ethical experts has convened to define brain death and associated clinical rules, revealed Mao Qun'an, spokesman for the Ministry of Health.
However, at a regular press conference, Mao says it's still early to make legislation, 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.
Official figures show 2 million Chinese need organ transplants each year and a great many die waiting. Only 20,000 operations are conducted every year.
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 she was in a coma in England after a train accident.
But she was miraculously saved in Beijing following treatment combining traditional Chinese and Western medicines.
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.
（英語點津 Celene 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Bernice Chan is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Bernice has written for newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong and most recently worked as a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, producing current affairs shows and documentaries.
