Abandoning the use of organs harvested from executed prisoners for organ transplants is a symbol of China's progress in human rights, as well as in medical and health services, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

China has made progress in human rights and judicial reform during recent years, with courts acting with more caution in handing down the death penalty, Huang Jiefu, head of the national organ donation and transplant committee and former vice-minister of health, said Wednesday.

"If we continue harvesting organs from condemned prisoners, organ transplants [in China] will become water without a source," Huang said.

The ban on harvesting organs from condemned prisoners will not cause organ shortages. Instead, it will help solve the problem, Huang said.

China formally abolished harvesting organs from executed prisoners for transplant on January 1 this year.

Harvesting organs from death-row prisoners was a reluctant choice taken because China lacked a voluntary donation system prior to 2009. This harvesting violated WHO guidelines and caused concern on the part of the international community, according to Huang.

China's mechanisms for protecting prisoners' rights were weak, with some death-row prisoners forced to donate their organs, Zhuang Yiqiang, assistant secretary-general of the China organ transplant development foundation, told the Beijing Youth Daily.

"Organ transplant sometimes became a hotbed for corruption and abuse of power," Zhuang said.

Li Wei, a liver transplant doctor at the General Hospital of Armed Police Forces, told the Global Times that the hospital has shifted to using donated organs from volunteers for transplants around three years ago.

"Last year, we used donated organs in 60 percent of the surgeries," Li said, adding that 20 percent were from live donors, with the same percentage coming from condemned prisoners.

China set up a voluntary organ donation system in 2009. By 2014, voluntary donations had become the major source of organs for transplant, accounting for 80 percent of the total organs used in organ transplant last year, Huang said.

Nearly 1,000 organs were donated by 381 citizens from January 1 to March 3 this year, an increase of 50 percent compared with the same period last year.

"Judging from statistics in the first two months, I believe that this year, hospitals will have the same number of organs as last year through pure donations, so organ shortages won't be a problem," Li said.