China bans commercial trade in corpses

BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters) China is to ban the trade and commercial use of corpses, further tightening controls on a transplant market that critics say has been beset by illegal trade in organs, often involving executed prisoners.

The rules, which take effect on August 1, bar all use of donated bodies except for medical research and require burial once research is complete.

''No organisation or individual is allowed to accept body donations except medical institutes, medical schools, medical research institutes and forensic research institutes,'' Xinhua news agency today said.

Transport of bodies into and out of China for interment would require approval from civil affairs departments, customs and inspection and quarantine authorities, it said.

Transport for medical research into and out of the country must adhere to regulations of the State Council, or cabinet, the Health Ministry and quarantine administration, it said. All other use was banned.

The new regulation followed another which took effect on July 1 banning the sale of human organs, requiring written consent from donors and restricting the number of hospitals performing transplant operations.

The World Health Organisation welcomed that ban, announced in March, saying it was a positive step and would help target brokers who had exploited loopholes in China's legal framework to arrange the sale of organs from executed prisoners.

Rights groups have criticised the use of organs from executed prisoners in China and hospitals alleged to have turned to organ sales and transplants to raise funds. They estimate 5,000 to 12,000 are put to death in China each year, more than anywhere else in the world.

China's Foreign Ministry has said the organs had been used without the executed prisoner's consent in only a few cases, and that doing so was illegal.

About 2 million Chinese need transplants each year, but only 20,000 receive them due to a shortage of donors, spurring illegal trade in some regions, state media said.

REUTERS SB KP1159