The Shanghai Red Cross reported yesterday that during the first
nine months of this year, 2,049 people registered with the
organization as organ donors, an increase of 45 percent compared to
the same period last year.
The city now has 14,096 people listed in the local Red Cross' "body
bank," which was established in 1987, Red Cross officials said.
Since 2,119 people on the list have died, their organs have been
used for transplants or their bodies have been used for medical
research in accordance with their wishes.
City health officials attributed the increase to the city's Body
Donation Regulation, the nation's first such regional law. They
also conceded that getting people to agree to donate organs or
tissue remains a difficult task, since many still hold to the
traditional belief that a corpse should be kept "whole."
"After the regulation took effect on March 1, we received many
visits and telephones queries. Since then, 1,930 people have
registered as donors as of September 30," said Yang Junyi, director
of the Shanghai Red Cross' organization and training
department.
The regulation strengthens the Red Cross' efforts to sign up donors
and to conduct public education drives as well as indicating the
backing of local government, Yang said.
Prior to the regulation, officials complained that often the
children of donors refused to have medical authorities take custody
of the bodies, since permitting a parent's body to be used for
medical purposes is considered by many Chinese to be "unfilial
behavior."
Lin Zhengtai, an official responsible for corpses used in medical
research and teaching at Fudan
University, said: "We should have more bodies. The wishes of
many old people haven't been honored because their children
disagree. Before the regulation, every donor had to have the
permission of a member of his or her immediate family."
The new regulation now also allows any close relative or friend of
the donor, the employer or even the neighborhood committee and
officials of the donor's senior citizens' home to grant
permission.
(eastday.com December 25,
2001)