Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Thursday criticized comments made by a British transplant society which advised British patients against going to China for a transplant operation.

Qin said at a regular press conference of the ministry that he does not understand why the organization issued such a statement, adding that he has reiterated China's position on organ transplants many times and the Ministry of Health has also made related regulations.

Qin reminded the organization of reports from several years ago which told of some British hospitals using organs of dead patients for other purposes without their families' consent.

The Chinese Ministry of Health issued a temporary regulation on human organ transplants on March 27, banning the sale of organs and tightening approval standards for organ transplant.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health Mao Qun'an told a press conference on April 10 that most organs in the organ transplant operations in China have come from voluntary donations by Chinese citizens, who were close to death, and only a few from death penalty criminals who voluntarily signed the donation.

The organs from executed criminals were adopted only when they voluntarily signed or their relatives agreed to donate their organs. All that must go through strict legal procedures, said Mao.

Source: Xinhua