China Locals Have First Priority For Organ Transplants

[okarol]

July 04, 2007 13:54 PM     

China Locals Have First Priority For Organ Transplants

BEIJING, July 4 (Bernama) -- Faced with a shortage of organs for transplants, China has instructed its hospitals to give priority to locals, state media said.

Two million Chinese are on the waiting list each year but only one per cent get to undergo the operation.

Foreigners will be barred from so-called medical tours for transplants but cases can be reviewed by provincial hospitals and approved by the health ministry.

China Daily said more foreigners were coming to China to get kidney, liver and other organs due to low costs and lured by the illegal availability of organs.

Most are from the Middle East, Japan and South Korea.

More than 3,000 Koreans had organ transplants while over 1,000 Malaysians received new kidneys in recent years, said China Daily.

Zhang Lei, a leading organ transplant surgeon at Beijing Friendship Hospital, said foreigners should have transplants in their own countries because of follow-up treatments.

He said some local hospitals took in foreign patients to make profits and middlemen also made money from arranging for foreign patients.

China has banned trading of human organs since May and 160 hospitals are permitted to carry out transplant operations.

-- BERNAMA