China launches organ donation website

China launched its first official organ donation registration website on Wednesday, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC).

Citizens can register as organ donors via www.savelife.org.cn, and their information will only be accessible to authorized organizations and coordinators, the commission said.

Donors can modify or withdraw their registration via the website. Donations will have to be approved by close relatives after the donor's death, according to the commission.

Zhou Jun, an official with the NHFPC, said the website had been set up to promote public awareness on organ donation.

China has the world's second-largest demand for organ transplants. About 300,000 patients suffer from organ failure each year, but only around 10,000 transplants are performed due to a lack of donors.

Traditional Chinese customs call for people to be buried or cremated with their organs intact, making it difficult to get people to become donors.

China introduced an organ donation system in 2010, with the Red Cross Society serving as an independent third party for supervising and facilitating donation procedures.

The NHFPC issued a new rule to prevent human intervention and ensure fairness and transparency in human organ distribution in August, stipulating that donor organs must be distributed automatically through a national system.

In March, China set up a special committee in charge of coordinating and guiding different systems including donation, obtaining and distribution, clinical transplant service, postoperative registration, and transplant supervision.