Directed organ donation

Abstract

"In light of organ donation and transplantation, there are two distinctive features between Japan and Western countries. One would be that the rate of organ donation and transplants in Japan is extremely low. In comparison with the United Kingdom which adopts the opt-in system of organ donation, for instance, the number of those who register organ donation in Japan is merely one tenth and that of transplant practices in 2009, for example, was one twentieth [1] (Japan Organ Transplant Network [2]; NHS Blood and Transplant [3]). [4] Although the reason for such distinctive numerical differences can be argued by a variety of viewpoints, this controversial topic was discussed in a previous essay (Yoshida 2004). The other two features would be that the concept of directed organ donation was uniquely legalized in the revised version of Law on Organ Transplant (Law No. 86. 2009) under which priority donations among family members was permitted from the 17 January 2010. The first case under the revised law is that of a wife of a man who had died of stomach cancer on the 21 May 2010 received one of his corneas by an hour-and-half transplant operation carried out on the last day of May 2010 (Daily Yomiuri [5]; Mainichi Shinbun [6]). According to principles of justice and equity and to standards of the greatest medical need, organs from deceased donors have been distributed to potential recipients on a waiting list of relevant organs, although the Western countries have the differing opt-in system and opt-out one in dealing with the intention to donate organs. Therefore the equal and impartial allocation of organs engages prohibiting discrimination, unrelated to medical concern of life or death, on the basis of sex, age, ethnic origin, races, sexual orientation, colour of skin, religious, etc."(pg 99)