Regulations may be needed to standardize the donation and
transplant of human organs in northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province.
Local members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC)
in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, have called for a legal
framework for donations and transplants of human organs such as
corneas.
The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University
reports that of the 10,000 people in Harbin suffering from various
ophthalmic diseases, more than 3,000 need cornea transplants.
"What we are lacking is not technology, but the corneas," said
Liu Ping, a member of CPPCC and an ophthalmologist at the hospital.
"We now have no storage of corneas at all."
Liu is also the director of the eye bank of Heilongjiang
Province, which was set up five years ago to accept cornea
donations from local citizens.
More than 1,000 local citizens have signed agreements to donate
their corneas after their death, said Liu, but the bank actually
receives corneas from only a small proportion of them.
Many of the donors are still alive, Liu pointed out. But another
problem is the relatives of the donors: in accordance with
traditional beliefs, they prefer to keep the body intact and thus
fail to notify the eye bank of the donor's death.
"The agreements do not have legal effect and are more like
promises," said Liu. "We can do nothing if they break the
promises."
The bank recently received its first cornea donation from a
signatory to a donation agreement. The donor was Yan Ahong, a
journalist who died of cancer and whose corneas helped two people
regain their eyesight.
When Yan's story was made public, a few dozen people contacted
the eye bank and expressed their willingness to donate their
corneas.
Corneal transplants are inexpensive and successful in more than
90 percent of the cases, according to Liu. But fewer than 100 are
done in Harbin annually.
More than 50 patients in Liu's hospital are on the waiting list
for corneas. Some have bided their time for more than two years and
missed the ideal time for a transplant, said Liu.
Liu has suggested that local regulations be enacted to ensure
that the organs are made available at the time of a donor's death.
He notes that organ donations are common and protected by laws in
most developed countries.
The hospital can legally take the organs to save others if the
donor has granted permission. In some locations in the United
States, organ donor status is noted on individuals' identification
cards so that they may be immediately identified.
Liu said eye banks in Shenzhen maintain contacts with local
hospitals. When they learn that a patient is terminal, eye bank
representatives try to persuade the patient to sign up as a
donor.
(China Daily November 23, 2004)