The Ministry of Health said it has carried out a trial program on organ donation in twenty-one provinces and municipalities - aiming to establish a comprehensive organ donation system across the country.

China is the second largest country for organ transplantation behind the United States, and it is often hard to meet the country's huge demand. In the United States there are 5 patients for every donor. And that ratio is 3:1 in England, but in China, it reaches as high as 150:1.

The lack of donors in the country has become one of the main drivers of the illegal trade in organs. The ongoing trial program hopes to solve these problems by standardizing organ transplant procedures across the nation. In another first, brain death has now been listed as an accepted condition for organ donation.

(CNTV.cn December 3, 2011)