Hong Kong: John Lee, the chief executive of Hong Kong, decried an unusual increase in the number of requests to withdraw from the city's organ donation system and announced on Tuesday that police would look into any suspicious cases.
In the five months since December, when the government suggested establishing an organ transplant mutual assistance programme with mainland China, the city's centralised organ donation registration system reportedly received nearly 5,800 withdrawal requests.
More than half of the withdrawal requests were determined to be invalid, either because they were duplicates or originated from individuals who had not opted in. Lee called the actions of those who withdrew their applications without ever registering suspicious during a routine press briefing.
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He said, "I severely condemn those who seek to undermine this honourable system that saves lives through organ donation. This is a dishonourable act.
In a stern statement Monday, the government added that it could not rule out the possibility that a small number of individuals attempted withdrawals in an effort to damage the system's reputation and add to the administrative burden. Without naming any websites or specific people, it claimed that a small number of people had distorted the benefits of organ donation by advocating that donors should check the recipients' identities online. Others were also urged to leave the system, it was added.
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Some users expressed scepticism about the proposed system on Hong Kong's Reddit-like forum LIHKG, where pro-democracy advocates discussed tactics for the 2019 anti-government movement. Others shared a link to the register withdrawal page.
After a baby girl underwent the city's first transplant using an organ donated from the mainland China in December, the government floated the proposal. It stated that if medical staff were unable to locate a patient locally who could use a donated organ, the programme for organ assistance under consideration could be immediately activated.
The political controversy over the proposed mutual assistance programme reflected Beijing's crackdown on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement with a broad national security law, as well as some residents' mistrust of China's healthcare system.