New Delhi

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Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday (May 23) that the police would investigate suspicious applications from people seeking to withdraw from the city's organ donation system, condemning an alleged attempt to damage the programme. Speaking to reporters, Chief Executive Lee pointed to those who withdrew their applications without ever registering, calling their actions suspicious, the news agency Associated Press reported. 

“I severely condemn those who attempt to cause damage to this noble system which saves lives through organ donations,” Lee said, adding it was a shameful act. 

Since December last year, Hong Kong's organ donation system received nearly 5,800 withdrawal applications, when the government raised the possibility of establishing an organ transplant mutual assistance programme with China. Over half of the withdrawal applications were found to be invalid, either as duplicate applications or coming from people who had never opted in.

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Hong Kong has a separate system for matching donated organs to patients and does not have any standing mechanism to share cadaveric organs with institutions in mainland China. The report said that cross-border organ transplants have been permitted on a case-by-case basis.

Organ donations met with resistance in Hong Kong, China

Organ donations have been met with resistance in Hong Kong as well as China. On Hong Kong’s Reddit-like forum LIHKG, some users were sceptical about the proposed system and others posted a link for making withdrawals from the register.

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Earlier, the Hong Kong government floated the proposal after a baby girl underwent the city's first transplant using a heart donated from mainland China in December last year. The government said the organ assistance programme under consideration could be activated immediately after medical personnel could not match a donated organ with a suitable patient locally.

On Monday, the government said that it could not rule out that a small number of people made withdrawal attempts in a bid to undermine the reputation of the system and to increase the administrative burden.

Without naming anyone, the government said these people distorted the virtue of organ donation by promoting the idea that donors should scrutinise the identity of the recipients online. The government also pointed out that some of these people also urged others to withdraw from the system. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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