Another suggestion is that registries of all organ procurement and transplants are established and "appropriate data shared with international databanks" and that a legal framework be developed for healthcare professionals "to report information about suspected cases of transplant-related crimes, while respecting their professional obligations to patients."
It is also recommended that healthcare professionals be educated by organizations involved in transplantation in legal and international guidelines on trafficking, and in consistent ethical and medical reviews of both donors and recipients to assess both short and long-term outcomes.
"That nations provide the resources to achieve self-sufficiency in organ donation at a national level…by reducing the need for transplants through preventive measures and improving access to national transplant programs in an ethical and regulated manner," is also suggested.
Prior to the conference, there was some controversy regarding China's participation in the Summit, as the advocacy group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) said in a statement that there was "no evidence that past practices of forced organ harvesting have ended" in China.
During the conference, Dr. Huang Jiefu, Beijing's top official on transplants, said that Beijing was, in fact, working on reforming its use of organs being taken from detained or executed prisoners.
"China is mending its ways and constantly improving its national organ donation and transplantation systems," he said.
DAFOH criticized the Vatican for inviting Huang, saying that it would compromise the conference's image and objectives, when there isn't sufficient evidence that reform on this issue is actually happening in China.
However, the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Mons. Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, defended China's participation, saying that the country's participation may help encourage reform, according to Reuters.
Mons. Vitillo said that during the meeting it was "clearly recognized that we do face a challenge in the waiting lists for transplants of vital organs, especially kidneys, livers, and lungs."
"For this we need to raise more awareness and motivate people to voluntarily serve as living donors so that the lives of seriously ill people needing transplants will have the opportunity for longer, fuller, and higher quality lives," he said.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.