Ethical and legislative perspectives on liver transplantation in the People's Republic of China

✍ Scribed by Jiefu Huang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 67 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1527-6465
• DOI: 10.1002/lt.21081

✦ Synopsis

Following the first unsuccessful effort at clinical liver transplantation in 1978, liver transplantation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has evolved over 3 decades and now, has become accepted as an effective therapeutic modality for many types of end-stage liver disease. Because of the high incidence of liver diseases and improving standards of living in the PRC, the demand for liver transplantation has increased; with improved outcomes, liver transplant activity has also increased dramatically. It is projected that the PRC will continue to rise in the rankings of countries performing liver transplantation. However, ethical issues lag behind the rapid technical advances, and the legislation to govern its clinical application, such as organ donation, procurement, and allocation, have not been fully established. Indeed, the lack of a legal framework for declaration of brain death and subsequent organ donation has fostered suspicions of unethical practices from within and outside of the PRC which prevent the country from joining the global transplant community.

With globalization, the PRC has been exposed to many facets of medical, social, and ethical practices, and the resultant integration of these practices into liver transplant practices have resulted in dynamic changes. Thus, it is necessary to illustrate the progress that has been achieved and the challenges that the PRC faces, and goals must be defined in a way to accomplish and facilitate the further disciplined development of liver transplantation in the PRC.