Researchers have praised the Chinese government’s “great progress” in regulating its organ transplant operations in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week. Bing-Yi Shi and Li-Ping Chen wrote: “the Chinese Ministry of Health has strictly enforced the authentication program for approval of hospitals to perform organ transplantation.” They also claim that “quality surveillance and management of transplantations have improved substantially” and that “hospitals that conduct illegal transplant operations or mismanage organ transplantations are punished with financial penalties or administrative sanctions.”

The researchers commended the government because it “strictly followed the guiding principles of the World Health Organisation for organ transplantation”. Perhaps the most controversial issue in China is the use of organs from convicts. The researchers cited a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Health as saying on September 8, 2009: “We don’t set distinct restriction on transplantation of organs from convicts, but the government does stringently regulate organ procurement procedures, and the donor must consent to the use of his or her organs for transplantation.”

The researchers wrote that after a “process of difficult exploration and slow advances in regulating organ transplantation… the government is intent on regulating organ transplantation with the general goal of reaching a scientific, modern, and international standard.” ~ Journal of the American Medical Association, Jul 27