Regulatory support needed for brain donation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 18, 2004

Regulatory support needed for brain donation

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China needs to formulate law and related regulations to clearly define rights and obligations of both donors and recipients for brain donation, say scholars and lawyers appeal in the capital city of central China's Hunan Province.

China Brain Bank, which is believed to be the world's first brain bank that maintains records of personal life experience and psychological development, was launched late February jointly by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Central South University of China in Changsha.

The Brain Bank is located at the Xiangya Medical School of the Central South University of China and the HKU Faculty of Medicine.

About 800 people in Changsha have registered as future donors for the Brain Bank.

According to Tang Siu Wa, head of the Department of Psychiatry of HKU Faculty of Medicine, the China Brain Bank was a collection of brains with records of different characters and personalities, normal and abnormal thoughts, and life experiences, so that it really cut across humanity and medicine, cut across disciplines.

As one of the sponsors of the China Brain Bank, Tang said that there were many brain banks around the world but none with such a design.

Collections from brain banks in Western countries are not accompanied by detailed medical history or psychological profiles of the donors, or psychometric or psychiatric profiling, all of which is important information to the interpretation of data.

Furthermore, the western based brain banks do not have an adequate supply of brain tissue from Chinese subjects.

"Though we have 800 registered would-be donators, the lack of related laws and regulations hinders donor programs," said Luo Xuegang, head of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology of theCentral South University of China.

According to He Weimin, who is in charge of the brain donation for the Xiangya Medical School of the university, the donors have signed agreements with the medical school and the agreements have been notarized. However, the rights and obligations of the donors and recipients are not yet defined clearly, due to regulatory obstacles.

There are no state laws and regulations governing donation of human bodies, Zhou Yujun, a lawyer and member of the Hunan Association of Hospital Management, said.

Currently, only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have promulgated local rules concerning the donation of human organs, Zhou Yujun said.

Regulations to be enacted nationwide on body donation will alsobe conducive to effectively combating illegal traffic of human organs, Zhou says.

Source: Xinhua

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