Last week, the Director of the Chinese Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee, Huang Jiefu, announced that China would gradually distance itself from its "former dependence on executed prisoners as the major source of organ donations".

300,000 people in China are currently waiting for a compatible donor. Faced with a shortage of transplants, China introduced a system to collect the organs of executed prisoners. In 2010, Huang Jiefu announced that 90% of transplanted organs in China were obtained using this system. Last year, China launched a "pilot programme" in 25 provinces and towns to encourage voluntary organ donation. If 2 people out of 1 million signed up, all of the organs could come from voluntary donors. The ratio is currently 0.2 to 1 million.