China to abolish organ donations from executed prisoners

China has pledged to abolish an infamous practice of taking out the organs from executed prisoners for transplantation within the next five years, official media reported today.

China is creating a national organ donation system to reduce its reliance on organ donations from death row inmates and encourage donations from the public, said Huang Jiefu, the country's vice minister of health.

To achieve this goal, trial systems have been launched in 16 of the Chinese mainland's 31 provincial-level regions, Huang told a conference in eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

"The pledge to abolish organ donations from condemned prisoners represents the resolve of the government," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the minister as saying.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that about 1.5 million people in China need transplants, but only some 10,000 transplants are performed annually.

China, which according to international human rights groups, conducts highest number of executions, has advocated the prudent use of the death penalty in recent years, removing various economic offences from the death penalty list.

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