年輕人更能接受遺體捐獻
As the New Year comes, many young people are buying gifts, but Geng Yingying is thinking about a serious subject－death. A healthy 21-year-old student at Northwest Normal University in Gansu province, Geng signed documents to donate her body for medical research and education because she wants to leave a legacy to the world after her death. She first learned about body donation through a volunteer activity in 2016. Not long after that, one of her friends died in an accident.
隨着新年的到來，很多年輕人都加入了買禮物的浪潮，但Geng Yingying想的卻是一個極爲嚴肅的話題--死亡。Geng Yingying就讀於甘肅省西北師範大學，年齡21歲，身體健康。她簽署了一份遺體捐獻文件，自願在離世後將遺體用於醫學研究和教育，因爲她想爲世人留下些什麼。2016年，在參加一次志願者活動中，她首次瞭解到遺體捐獻這一行爲。沒過多久，她的一位好友意外離世了。"I realized life is vulnerable and I wanted to make it more meaningful," she says. Geng is among a growing number of young Chinese who have registered as voluntary body donors in recent years. The number of registered volunteers for body and organ donations was 2,610 in Gansu by Nov 20, compared with just 80 in 2014, according to the statistics released by the local Red Cross Society.
"我意識到生命是脆弱的，我希望我的生命更有意義，"她說道。近年來，越來越多的年輕中國人自願捐獻遺體，Geng就是其中一員。據甘肅省紅十字會發布的統計數據，截止2018年11月20日，甘肅省自願捐獻遺體和器官的登記者共計2610人，而2014年僅爲80人。The Beijing arm of the Red Cross reported that, by 2017 over 21,100 people applied to donate their cadavers since the city started a body donation registry in 1999. Over 2,600 donations have been used for medical research and education in that time.
北京市紅十字會報道，自北京於1999年開始實施遺體捐獻登記以來，已有211000人申請遺體捐獻（截止2017年）。當時有超過2600人的遺體捐獻被用於醫學研究與教育。
Zhan Haibing, a postgraduate student in the School of Public Health at Lanzhou University, refers to cadavers as "silent teachers": "They have played an irreplaceable role in medical education and research. They give medical students a real understanding of the human body."
Zhan Haibing是蘭州大學公共衛生學院的研究生，他將遺體稱爲"沉默的教師"："遺體在醫學教育和科研方面發揮着不可替代的作用，讓醫學生有機會真正瞭解人體。"China's body donation program started in the early 1980s. The Chinese have traditionally held that a person's body should remain intact because they believe there is an afterlife, and they see a traditional burial as an obligation of filial piety toward their elders.
中國的遺體捐獻計劃始於20世紀80年代。傳統概念上，中國人認爲一個人的身體應該保持完整，因爲他們相信來世一說，而且他們認爲舉辦傳統葬禮是一種義務：向老人敬孝。
Voluntary body donation in China needs consent from an executor who must be a direct relative of the donor. Geng's decision to donate her body was strongly opposed by her parents, but she convinced them to support her. Her brother even signed as her executor. As the laws and the overall environment for donation continue to improve, and people's attitudes to funeral customs gradually change, body donations have become more acceptable.
中國人自願捐獻遺體需獲得其直系親屬（遺囑執行人）的同意。Geng決定捐獻遺體，但遭到了父母的強烈反對，而她成功說服父母支持此舉。她的哥哥甚至在文件上簽名，作爲遺囑執行人。隨着捐獻的法律和整體環境持續改善，人們對葬禮習俗的態度逐步改變，遺體捐獻也變得更易接受。
