CHINA. CHINA TO BAN TRADE IN HUMAN ORGANS, STATE MEDIA

China planned to issue regulations banning the trade in human organs, state media quoted ice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu as. The country had long been accused by human rights groups of taking executed prisoners' organs without their consent -- sometimes while they were still alive -- to use for transplants. The trade in human organs had become lucrative as an increasing number of Chinese were wealthy enough to afford transplants. Overseas Chinese and other foreigners also came to China for operations. The new rules would stress the "non-commercialization" of organ transplants. They would highlight eight principles on organ transplants including the patient's consent to undergo the operation and his or her right to know in advance about the operation, Huang said. It was not clear whether "the patient" referred to the organ provider or the organ recipient. The report also did not mention whether China would ban the use of executed prisoners' organs, but such a law would make it illegal for courts to sell executed prisoners' organs to hospitals. Xinhua said putting up advertisements for buying organs for transplants and selling organs would also be prohibited. The regulations would adopt two criteria to determine whether a person was dead and whether it was safe to transplant his or her organs to others: the heart stopping or brain death, according to Hu. The Chinese government had denied promoting the use of prisoners' organs. Chinese media reports, however, had said mobile vans were used to take the organs quickly after the prisoner was executed. In recent years, there had been reports of prisoners' relatives trying to sue local governments.