More than 8,200 in Taiwan await organ transplants

As of Friday, more than 8,200 people in Taiwan were still waiting for organ transplants, more than 50 times the number of people who have been given transplants this year, the Taiwan Organ Registry Sharing Center said.

Liu Chia-chi (劉嘉琪), deputy executive director of the center, said that based on the number of organs donated, only 148 people have had their wishes fulfilled this year.

Liu hospitals in Taiwan only register the number of organs donated by people who had died, not live organ donations, so it was difficult for the center to know if patients may have already received organs from their relatives and already been removed from the waiting list.

She said that the Department of Health estimated two years ago that around 450 Taiwanese travel to China each year to have organ transplants, with about 300 getting kidney transplants.

She said now that China has banned the sale of organs, transplant transactions have moved to the black market and the impact on Taiwanese patients remained “unclear.”