Chinese City Enacts New Organ Donation Guidelines

A southern Chinese city has become the first in the country to issue detailed regulations on human organ donation and transplant, banning trade in human organs, according to state media.

The new guidelines enacted by city of Shenzhen, adjacent to Hong Kong, also seem likely to widen the scope for organ donation as they will allow living-donor transplantation among non-relatives, the China Daily reported.

However, persons under the age of 18 will only be permitted to be living organ donors for members of their own family, it said.

The new rules outlaw the buying and selling of human organs, with stiff fines for hospitals and surgeons that perform transplants using illegally obtained organs, the state-run Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

The new regulations follow charges by human rights activists that patients have paid for transplants involving organs removed without permission from executed Chinese prisoners.

Other Sources: Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, China Daily