Press Releases

SFH on organ donation

Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, after attending a public function today (October 15):

Reporter: Do you think that Hong Kong is doing enough to support organ donation? Do you think that we should adopt the "opt-out" system?

Secretary for Food and Health: Despite of the advance in medicine as well as the very successful organ transplantation services in Hong Kong, the organ donation rate in Hong Kong is still very low. That is why the Government has stepped up its effort in promoting organ donation. We have set up the Committee on Promotion of Organ Donation, under the leadership of the Under Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, earlier this year. We have put forth an Organ Donation Promotion Charter and more than 180 companies and organisations have signed up the Charter. As you see today, various commercial organisations, non-governmental organisations and universities have now joined hands to promote organ donation. Through these initiatives, we hope that the number of citizens signing up in the Department of Health's Centralised Organ Donation Register can be increased significantly, thereby increasing Hong Kong's organ donation rate.

Reporter: You have just talked about a case of waiting for organ donation, do you think that there is a serious shortage right now? Is there any mechanism that can ease the shortage?

Secretary for Food and Health: You can see that we have recently stepped up our initiatives in promoting organ donation. The next step is that we will conduct a study on the public's attitude regarding other legislative or non-legislative means to promote organ donation. These means will include exploring the option of "opt-out" legislation and other initiatives.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, October 15, 2016
Issued at HKT 16:16
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