On 28th February 2014, thousands of people in the Philippines pledged to donate kidneys and other body parts after death as part of a bid to set a Guinness world record for organ donations, the health ministry said.

“If they meet with an unfortunate accident and they are brought to a hospital and declared brain dead... then doctors will know what to harvest,” said Assistant Health Secretary, Eric Tayag. The event was also intended to spread awareness and remove the stigma in the Philippines about organ donation, he added. Organ transplants are a controversial issue in the Philippines with poor people sometimes selling their kidneys and other organs to wealthy foreigners in the guise of “donations”.

A “record” 3,548 people signed up for organ donor cards at one Manila university in the space of an hour in the campaign launched by the ministry. Guinness did not immediately certify the Manila donations.