Twenty-eight people have donated their organs to the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) as of Monday since it launched a pilot program on organ donations in March, the Red Cross said in a statement Wednesday.
RCSC said consent was obtained from donors and their families before the donations were made. Donors agreed to offer organs such as liver, kidney, heart and cornea for transplants after their death. The Red Cross did not give details on how the organs were used.
Of the donors, the southern province of Guangdong had 16, Tianjin Municipality and central Hunan Province each had four, northeastern Liaoning Province had two, and central Hubei Province and coastal Zhejiang Province each had one.
The Red Cross and the Ministry of Health launched the program in seven provinces and four cities across China to promote the spirit of humanity, fraternity and devotion and promote public awareness of organ donations, the statement said.
Each year in China, nearly 1 million people need kidney transplants and 300,000 need liver transplants, but only some 1 percent can receive them due to a lack of donors, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.
