More than 65 percent of all transplanted organs in China come from executed prisoners, a situation that a senior health official has condemned as improper, state media reported Wednesday.
The report in the English-language China Daily, which attributed the figure to health experts, was a rare acknowledgement of the role played by death row prisoners in the country's transplant industry.
Executed inmates "are definitely not a proper source for organ transplants", the paper quoted Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu as saying.
In order to curb the country's "long-time dependence" on using organs from executed prisoners, the Red Cross Society of China on Tuesday launched a national organ donation system, the paper said.
