The state-run newspaper China Daily reported the practice, condemned internationally, will end Jan. 1, and only voluntarily donated organs from the non-prison population will be used for transplants.
Critics have noted that, although China's death row inmates have served as a source of about two-thirds of available organs in a country where about 300,000 people annually need organ transplants, cultural concerns regarding funerals, and fears donors may be taking part in an illicit trade in body parts, have limited donations.
China's after-death organ donation rate is about 0.6 per million people, among the world's lowest.
The human rights group Dui Hua, based in San Francisco, has estimated China executed about 2,400 prisoners in 2013, down from about 12,000 in 2002.
Huang Jiefu, China's Health Minister, has noted only about 10,000 people per year receive needed organs, and there have only been 1,500 donations in 2014.
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