Abstract
In the past several decades, due to the severe shortage of transplantable organs, organ procurement from executed prisoners have been used to transplant organs, which goes against international ethics standards. As of January 2015, China phased out the use of executed prisoner organs and embarked on its transplant reform. Since then, many efforts have been made to meet the international ethics guidelines on organ transplants. In this study, we aim to elaborate on the status quo of organ procurement from executed prisoners from the perspective of ethics and law. Although China has made great progress in organ donation and transplantation, some Western transplant surgeons and bioethicists still hold outdated views on organ donation and transplantation in China, which will not bring any benefits to its development and will alienate it from the international transplant community. In this study, we propose that both the international transplant society and Chinese transplant community, with mutual cooperation and trust, should jointly make efforts to advance the development of organ donation and transplantation in China.
Highlights
After many efforts by Chinese medical authorities, since 1 January 2015, China ended its reliance on the use of organs from executed prisoners and set up a nationwide voluntary donation system instead
Even after 2015, some Western colleagues still report that China continues to use executed prisoners as organ donors[1,2,3], which has been brought to an end by the Chinese government
With respect to organ procurement from executed prisoners, China draws condemnation from both international and national scholars, who propose that China should phase out dependence on organs sourcing from executed prisoners and establish an internationally acceptable ethical donation system
Summary
After many efforts by Chinese medical authorities, since 1 January 2015, China ended its reliance on the use of organs from executed prisoners and set up a nationwide voluntary donation system instead. Even after 2015, some Western colleagues still report that China continues to use executed prisoners as organ donors[1,2,3], which has been brought to an end by the Chinese government. All of this suggests that the previous procurement of organs from executed prisoners in China had attracted much attention from Western transplant surgeons, medical practitioners and bioethicists. Death row prisoners could get involved in organ donation, because there was no laws that made a distinction between death row prisoners and citizens.
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