On 14 Dec. 2023, China’s State Council issued the “Regulation on Human Organ Donation and Transplantation” (人体器官捐献和移植条例, hereinafter the “Regulation”), which will come into effect on 1 May 2024.
The Regulation applies to organ donation and transplantation within China, excluding the donation and transplantation of cells, corneas, bone marrow, and other human tissue.
The Regulation defines human organ donation as the voluntary, unpaid provision of whole or partial organs with specific physiological functions, such as heart, lung, liver, kidney, pancreas, or small intestine, for transplantation.
The highlights of the Regulation are as follows.
- No organization or individual may trade in human organs in any form or engage in activities related to trading in human organs.
- Human organ donation shall be based on the principle of free will and free of charge.
- No organization or individual may coerce, deceive, or induce others to donate their human organs.
- No organization or individual may remove any living organ of a citizen under the age of 18 for transplantation.
- The organs from human remains shall be removed only after the human organ donor has been legally determined dead. The medical staff engaged in the acquisition and transplantation of human organs shall not participate in the determination of the donor’s death.
- Human remains organs shall be uniformly distributed through the distribution system established by the health department of the State Council;
- No medical institution or its medical staff may carry out human organ transplants using human remains organs that have not been allocated by the allocation system or human organs of unknown origin.
- The health department of the State Council shall regularly publicize the donation and allocation of human organs.
- Recipients of living organs shall be limited to the spouse, lineal relatives by blood, or collateral relatives by blood up to the third degree of kinship of the living organ donor.
Photo by Zongnan Bao on Unsplash
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
