While applying to get driver's licenses on the mainland, members of the public can agree to give their organs away after they die, said Huang Jiefu, the vice-minister of health.

Under the new initiative, applicants will be asked to indicate if they are willing to donate their organs should they die, and, if so, which organs they would like to donate.

"This will lead to more voluntary organ donations among the public, will to some extent ease the severe shortage in donated organs, and, finally, will save more patients," said Qiu Renzong, a bioethics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He said the health administration, traffic administration and other interested parties must work together more closely to ensure his predictions come true.

But knowledge of the plan to encourage more people to agree to give away organs after death is not widespread. A press officer with the Ministry of Public Security's traffic management bureau, who didn't want to give her full name, told China Daily on Monday that she and her colleagues had not heard of it.

"The driver's license applications are now in strict accordance with current traffic laws," she said. "And, so far, we haven't heard of any changes to those laws."

Estimates hold that 1.5 million Chinese patients need transplants each year but only 10,000 of them can obtain a suitable organ.

Meanwhile, about 100,000 people die in road accidents on the mainland every year. A large number of them, as Huang noted, could have become organ donors.