China's Ministry of Health is drafting new rules to make organ donation easier for the public.

The regulation will standardize organ donation procedures and encourage people to become donors.

"Many more donors are needed, but they often run into difficulties when they apply, so the ministry must standardize the application process and transplant technology, which is complicated and risky," said ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an.

Mao was responding to questions about reports of would-be donors having their wishes unfulfilled because of confusion over the procedures or which agency to apply to.

The regulation would specify the whole application process and stipulate the requirements for medical institutions conducting transplants.

"Only the medical institutions that meet the technological requirements can undertake transplant surgery," said Mao.

It is estimated that two million Chinese need transplants each year, but only 20,000 operations are conducted because of a shortage of organs.

Foreign media have reported that organs are taken from executed criminals, but the Ministry of Health denied this in April, saying most organs in China were voluntarily donated by ordinary citizens on their deaths and a small number came from executed criminals who voluntarily signed donation approvals.

The purchase and sale of human organs was banned in China after a new regulation came into effect on July 1. Strict rules have also been imposed on human organ transplants in response to fierce overseas criticism of China's transplant industry.

China is the world's second largest performer of organ transplants after the United States, with about 5,000 transplant cases completed each year. More than 3,000 liver transplants were successfully conducted in China in 2005.

"However, overall recovery rates lag behind international levels," said Vice-Minister of Health Huang Jiefu in May, adding that the area of organ transplants in China is seriously disordered.

Source: Xinhua