A local hospital in southern China city of Guangzhou has rejected requests from two families who are eager to save their uraemia annoyed relatives by donating kidneys to the patient in the other family.

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The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College has informed the families of the denial and persuaded the patients to turn to other hospitals, reported Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.

 

He Yiwen, a 17-year-old high school student from Linli County of central Henan Province, was diagnosed with uraemia last year. And He Zhigang, a 39-year-old man from the province's Changde city, has been suffering from the illness since this May.

 

Both of them need live kidney transplantation to extend their lives, but neither could find a suitable source from their own family members.

 

To everyone's surprise, the patients’ survivals got connected when they found the kidney of a member in the other family could well match with their own blood types and physical conditions.

 

But cold water was thrown on both families when they came up with the idea of cross kidney donation to the hospital whose ethic committee later vetoed the operation for fear of offending the country's regulation on human organ transplantation.

 

According to the bill that took effect on May 1, 2007, live transplantations can only carried out between individuals having kindred relations or within a family, a measure set to avoid illegal organ transfer business.

 

An earlier feedback from the Guangdong provincial health watchdog also boosted the hospital to refuse the surgery. An official with the administration said in an interview that they would not break the rule for the case.

 

But the decision was blamed ruthless for the patients by Zhou Xiaohua, head of a local kidney disease association in Changde. He argued a similar case was successfully conducted at a hospital in Henan province in July last year after the regulation came into effect.

 

Debates were also arisen between ethical and organ transplanting professionals.

 

A medical ethical expert from the Guangzhou Medical College, Li Xingmin, supported the operation, explaining it doesn’t run against the national constitution. He also suggested changes in the regulation to give a green light to such urgent but irregular cases.

 

But on the other hand, a transplanting expert Chen Zhonghua warned complicated troubles may come out if the operation failed or the families are unsatisfied with the kidney donated the other side.

 

(CRI January 3, 2008)