China said yesterday it would ban the trade in human organs, amid domestic pressure to regulate the chaotic industry and reports that Japanese and Malaysians had died from botched Chinese transplants.
The health ministry issued regulations that will go into effect on July 1 banning the purchase and sale of organs while also introducing a set of medical standards for transplants.
Hospitals will be banned from taking organs without written consent from the donor, according to the regulations that were published on the ministry's Web site and carried in the state press.
Only China's top-ranked hospitals with a medical ethics committee and a proven ability to carry out transplant operations will be allowed to conduct the surgery.
The ministry also threatened to revoke hospitals' licenses if patients did not survive a certain number of years.
"Medical institutions and doctors in this field who violate ... laws and regulations in conducting transplant operations will be punished according to relevant laws and regulations," according to the guidelines.
However the guidelines did not appear to address what is widely recognized as the core problem of the industry -- a dire shortage of donated organs to meet demand.
The shortage -- state press have said only about 1 percent of all patients who need new organs get them -- has fueled what critics in and outside of China say is a rampant black market.
Hospitals have been regularly accused of secretly taking organs from dead traffic victims and other dead patients without telling family members.
Sometimes hospitals buy the organs from the deceased person's family members, but it is rare for families to consent as Chinese people traditionally want to keep the body intact.
Organs of executed prisoners are also harvested and sold to hospitals without consent, according to human rights groups and media reports in recent years.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was