China's registered organ donors exceed 6 mln

BEIJING, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The number of registered organ donors in China reached nearly 6.2 million with the number of annual organ transplants continuing to rank the second-highest in the world, China Daily reported Monday.

The majority of registered donors are young and middle-aged adults, aged 45 and below, Hou Fengzhong, head of the China Organ Donation Administrative Center, which is administered by the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), was quoted as saying.

Citing data released by the RCSC, the news report stated that nearly 1.54 million people registered as organ donors last year, compared with around 1.52 million in 2021 and 1.01 million in 2020.

China began a voluntary organ donation trial program in 2010 and voluntary posthumous donation became the only legal source of organ transplants in the country in 2015, the news report added.

The program has conducted 135,000 organ transplants involving about 44,000 posthumous organ donors in 13 years, according to the news report.