China is now considered the number one country in Asia whose citizens have actively taken part in voluntary organ donations.

Organ donations in the mainland have risen 120 times over the past six years since the Chinese Government implemented a program which encouraged its people to become organ donors, China Daily reported.

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This was revealed during the 2016 China International Organ Donation and Transplantation Forum held last May 15 at Wuhan, the capital of Central China's Hubei province.

The event was co-organized by the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee and the China Organ Transplant Development Foundation.

According to Guo Yanhong, deputy director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission's Medical Administration Bureau, China recorded 2,766 voluntary organ donations, with 7,758 large organs received in 2015.

Guo said that China had also broken a historic record with the more than 1,000 organ transplants done in the country. 

To recall, China previously relied on executed prisoners as the main source of organs.

In fact, there were only 34 voluntary organ donations made and 88 organ transplants carried out in China in 2010.

In 2015,  the Central Government banned the use of prisoners' organs and made citizen donation as the only legitimate channel to secure organs for transplants.

Despite the major strides achieved by China in the field of organ transplants, there are still 30,000 patients who await transplants each year,

Huang Jiefu, chairman of the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee and president of the China Organ Transplant Development Foundation, noted that there is still a big gap between the number of China's voluntary organ donations vis-à-vis patients who need to undergo the procedure. 

Tagschina, China Organ Donations, China Voluntary Organ Donations