70 donate organs in Shanghai's new scheme

A total of 70 people in Shanghai have donated organs to help more than 190 patients since the city launched a donor program just over two years ago.

These enabled heart, liver, kidney and pancreas transplants to take place, said officials.

To date, more than 3,700 people have signed up to donate their organs.

The program began after 17 city hospitals were authorized to begin human organ collection and transplants from donors in late 2012.

Traditionally, donating your body for organ donation or medical research is a taboo in China as it is believed a bad omen not to keep the body intact.

However, growing numbers of local people have been registering for body and organ donation in recent years due to education and increased public awareness, local health officials said yesterday, the city's 13th Body Donation Memorial Day.

While the organ donation scheme began only two years ago, for the past 13 years city residents have been able to donate their bodies to medical research. They can also opt to have their corneas used in transplants.

A total of 2,499 people registered to donate their body or corneas last year, said the Shanghai branch of the Red Cross Society of China, which manages the scheme. In the same period, 651 people donated their bodies and there were 60 donations of corneas.

By last December, a total of 38,704 people had registered to leave their bodies to science or for cornea donation.