In order to regulate organ transplant practice and protect patients' rights, it is urgent to pass legislation on brain death, transplants, organ donation and living organ donation between relatives, experts told the Association of Chinese Geneticists in America International Symposium on Genome Medicine in Shanghai yesterday.

"The new guideline on brain death will set criteria to judge whether a patient is brain dead or not. The purpose is not to collect organs, but to regulate medical practice and avoid errors," said Dr Yuan Jin from Wuhan's Tongji Hospital. "Even many Western countries with brain death laws still suffer an organ shortage."

Domestic hospitals have registered about 40 cases of brain death since the Ministry of Health issued draft guidelines on its criteria in 2003. Of those cases, the families of only five patients expressed a wish to donate organs.

Experts said central government is expected to pass an organ transplant law in the near future. The ministry has finished a draft that includes definitions of both brain death and heart death.

"Organs are still useful when a patient is judged brain dead," said Yuan.

Experts said an effective solution to organ shortages where living donation is possible is donation between relatives.

Dr Zhu Tongyu, director of urology at Shanghai's Zhongshan Hospital, said several things need to be done.

"Organ management in China is lagging behind," Zhu said. "Each hospital has a waiting list. In the West, nationwide waiting lists monitor the distribution of organs."

"Sometimes organs are wasted here because we don't have a national list of patients needing organs," the doctor added.

He said donation between relatives is the best method to solve the shortage where possible. An average of more than 60 percent of organs comes from patients' relatives in the West. It's only 4 percent in China.

In addition to the risk of such transplants, the present medical insurance system has also set barriers to living donors.

"The system doesn't cover the medical expenses of the donor, who also undergoes surgery," Zhu said. "The cost is at least 10,000 yuan (US$1,205) per donor."

(Shanghai Daily June 29, 2005)