The use of transplanted organs taken from executed convicts will cease in the Chinese mainland starting next year, with voluntary donations becoming the only source of organs, authorities announced Wednesday.

"Starting from January 1, China will end its reliance on the organs of executed prisoners for transplantation, which means that organ donations will only come from the public and voluntary organ donations will become the only organ donation source," Huang Jiefu, the chairman of the Alliance of Organ Procurement Organizations under the Chinese Hospital Association, announced at a meeting Wednesday in Kunming, Yunnan Province, local media reported. 

"This is a blow to organ trafficking and will better manage organ transplants," Huang said.

"Ending the reliance on organs from death row inmates shows major progress for China's human rights, and shows that human rights enjoy much better protection now as prisoners' rights are being more respected," Liu Changqiu, an Associate Researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

The practice of using organs from executed prisoners has been controversial in China and has been condemned as immoral because of a lack of consent.

He Xiaoshun, a doctor and vice-president of the No. 1 Hospital Affiliated with Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, told the Global Times that the move to end the reliance on prisoners as a source of organs will bring a positive impact to society.

"It's necessary to end the practice. China, as a superpower, has been criticized for its use of the death penalty and using organs from executed prisoners for years. Now, China's international image will be improved in terms of human rights," he said.

"Also, when public organ donations become the only source and become more popular, the organ trafficking market will shrink and it will cease to be problem," He noted.

However, there is still a marked reluctance among the public to donate their organs.

According to authorities, since 2010, there were 2,948 public organ donations recorded and a total of 7,822 organs donated until December 2.

"Between 2010 and 2013, there were 1,448 public organ donations, while this year we have recorded 1,500 cases already," Huang said.

There are approximately 300,000 patients on the waiting list for an organ transplant annually, while only about 10,000 organ transplant surgeries are done annually.

The ratio of public organ donations is 0.6 to 100,000 people, which means China has one of the lowest rates of organ transplants in the world, Huang told the meeting.

However, He says he is optimistic public organ donations will be able to fill the gap.

"In the past, there were only a few people willing to donate their organs or those of their relatives because of the conservative, traditional thinking of saving the full body, but now there is a significant increase in the number of donations. Next year, we might see an even higher number of donations. I'm positive that public organ donations will satisfy the demand of organ transplants in the near future," He said.

Health authorities have put much effort into promoting public organ donations in recent years. In 2011, a national computerized system, the China Organ Transplant Response System, was set up.

Organs are allocated through the system to address issues of fairness and efficiency in China's transplant organ allocation.

It has also gradually replaced the hospital-led organ transplant system.

There are currently 169 hospitals certified to carry out organ transplants, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

However, relatives of those who have undergone a transplant are worried that the problem of organ shortage will become more acute.

"The supply of organs for transplant is scarce, if we can't use organs from executed prisoners, it means we will have an even smaller hope of getting a transplant," a patient in Shandong Province, who is waiting for a donor organ, told the Global Times.

Mo Shaoping, a human rights lawyer, said that totally ending reliance on death row inmates' organ donations is too extreme.