Beijing - The Ministry of Health is set to approve new organ-transplant hospitals under a one-year pilot project, on condition they only use donated organs from the country's voluntary organ donation system run by the ministry and the Red Cross Society of China.

China has 164 hospitals authorized to practice transplants, but they have been relying on death row inmates as a major source of organ donations.

"Although written consent is required, the fact that China remains the only country in the world counting on executed prisoners for organ donations has seriously tarnished its image, particularly abroad," said Qiu Renzong, a bioethics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.