Zheng Qingbo, 23, a university graduate beginning his first job
in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong
Province, on Wednesday became the first registered volunteer
organ donor after the city passed the relevant regulations on the
donation and transplant of human organs.
Zheng is a biological engineering major and graduated from the
Central China University of Technology. He has worked in Shenzhen
for just two months.
On Wednesday morning he filled out a donation registration in
five minutes, to donate his corneas at the Red Cross of
Shenzhen.
Zhao Lizhen, secretary general of the Red Cross in Shenzhen,
said that before the passing of the regulations, six citizens had
volunteered to contribute their bodies after death, 26 citizens had
vowed to give their corneas and 6,600 elected to donate bone
marrow. Of the marrow donors, 19 had already made donations.
Although the detailed content of the regulations had not been
made public, Zhao said, the Red Cross was working to set up a
platform to promote the donation and transplant of human
organs.
Registered information on donors and receivers will be
electronically recorded in strict order of registration, and
patients who need an organ will have to wait their turn. To ensure
a legal process of human organ donation and transplant, donors and
receivers will never know each other's information.
(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2003)