China will stop using executed prisoners as a source of organs for transplant from 1 January, an official announced Wednesday.

The end to the practice of taking executed prisoners organs for transplantation means that organ donations will only come from the public, and voluntary organ donations will become the only organ source, according to Huang Jiefu, the chairman of the Alliance of Organ Procurement Organizations under the Chinese Hospital Association.

In China, lack of donors has long been a serious bottleneck in organ transplantation. Every year, the ratio of organ donations is only 1 percent of the huge demand, which means China has one of the lowest rates of organ transplant in the world. When it involves life-saving operations, it can be imagined how hard it will be to enforce the relevant laws and regulations in China.

All along, there has been a provision that transplanted organs taken from executed convicts should obtain the consent of the inmate and his or her family members. The provision is for the protection of human rights, which are written into the Constitution.

However, after Huang Jiefu’s interview was reported on the internet, there was speculation that the halt is a response to western pressure; after all, there is no moral reason not to use organs from executed prisoners. The diversity of public opinion largely reflects the complexity of the real-world environment on this move.

On one hand, executed convicts should have the same rights as normal people to make a decision on organ donation after death. On the other hand, the urgency of saving lives exposes the massive gulf between demand and donations.

Donor shortages are an international problem. Not only the patients but also their family members suffer pain and anxiety every second while waiting for organ donors. We choose to support strict regulation and show our respect to death row prisoners because every Chinese citizen deserves the same rights in the disposition of their bodies after death.

Science has given us new opportunities to save lives, but we are allowing these to go to waste and many people who might live are dying. Worse, taking organs from executed prisoners without their permission in the name of saving life is evil.

China should choose the right ways to narrow the gulf between demand and donations. Choosing the wrong ways will suppress the public’s desire to make voluntary donations and damage the overall moral image of transplants in China.

The urgent needs may result in organ harvesting for profits, which brings a lot of misfortune to donors. No matter in which country, the black markets are the direst. Chinese experts, including Huang Jiefu, expect to facilitate legal organ and tissue donation and transplant. Crackdown of illegal organ trade will be an important condition for increasing the organ supply in China.

Although in traditional Chinese culture many people believe bodies must remain intact after death, the number of Chinese doing unpaid donation of organs after death is increasing. It is a humanitarian hope that perhaps will drive the Chinese cultural beliefs.

It is the performance of the rule of law that we show respect to the rights of executed convicts on disposition of their organs after death. As more and more ordinary people make voluntary donations, there will be more convicts on the death row who are willing to donate.