HÀ NỘI — More than 300 people voluntarily registered to donate their tissues, organs and bodies after death for scientific purposes at a ceremony of Tissue and Organ Donation held in HCM City.

The event was co-held on Sunday by the National Co-ordination Centre for Human Organ Transplantation, Ministry of Health, Fund of Buddhist Today, and Giác Ngộ Pagoda.

“To limit inadequacies and poor performance in tissue and organ donation, the centre aims to improve transparency and public co-ordination in tissue and organ transplantation,” said Prof., Dr. Trịnh Hồng Sơn, director of the National Co-ordination Centre for Human Organ Transplantation.

“The people named on the national transplant waiting list will receive transplants in order, in which emergency cases and children are classified as priority,” Sơn said during the event.

According to experts, there are about 16,000 patients needing organ transplants and 300,000 others waited for cornea transplants.

However, currently, the source of tissues and organs remained rare while many people were able to donate tissues and organs after brain death such as those who died in traffic accidents and people with brain diseases, experts said.

Venerable Thích Nhật Từ, chief monk of Giác Ngộ Pagoda and president of Fund of Buddhist Today, said this was the sixth time the fund and the centre had organised the ceremony of tissue, organ and body donation to save lives and aid scientific research.

So far, 2,000 people have registered to donate, of which 1,000 people have taken part this year, Venerable Thích Nhật Từ said.

Those who registered were from all walks of life, including Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as family members.

“Each person who becomes a volunteer promotes the activity and calls on more organ donors,” said the monk.

Phạm Ngọc Thừa, a lecturer at the Medical Department of HCM City’s National University, said that at present a lack of cadavers was causing difficulties for teaching and scientific research in medical schools.

Thus, information dissemination on organ and body donation needs extending, he said.

Lương Kim Hương, a resident of the city’s District 5, and her five family members on Sunday registered to donate organs and bodies after death.

She wanted to save other people after her death. — VNS