China's voluntary organ donors exceed 300,000

BEIJING -- China has more than 300,000 registered organ donors, according to the China Organ Transplant Development Foundation.

About 262,500 organ donors had registered as of the end of 2017, almost 10 times more than in 2015. The counts for 2015 and 2016 were 25,959 and 115,867, respectively, according to Zhao Hongtao, an official with the foundation.

China banned the use of organs from executed prisoners in January 2015 and made voluntary donation the only legitimate source. With the system more fair and transparent, the number of organ donors is growing and public awareness is rising.

In 2017, China had recorded 5,148 cases of after-death organ donation, and almost 16,000 vital organs were donated nationwide, an increase of 25.9 percent from 2016.

However, there are about 300,000 Chinese patients waiting for organ transplants, but only 16,000 receive surgeries each year.

In 2016, the foundation, backed by the National Health Commission, launched an organ donation function on Alipay, an online payment platform where users can easily register as organ donors through just a couple of clicks.