Organ donation rate up under new law

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The organ-transplant rate has increased markedly following the introduction of revisions to the Organ Transplant Law on July 17 that eased the requirements for transplants from brain-dead donors.

In the three weeks to Sunday, five cases of organ donation from brain-dead donors were reported.

This figure is greater than any monthly total recorded since the Organ Transplant Law was enacted in 1997. The previous high was in January 2009, when four cases were reported.

The Japan Organ Transplant Network announced Sunday that a man in his 40s had been declared brain dead in a hospital in the Kanto-Koshinetsu area under the criteria stipulated by the revised law, and that his organs had been donated for transplantation.

The man had been hospitalized for encephalopathy, a disorder of the brain. Although it was unknown whether the man had expressed a wish to donate his organs, his family consented for his organs to be donated.

Before the law was revised, less than 10 cases of organ donation by brain-dead donors occurred per year on average. Such donations were only possible if the patient had explicitly expressed his or her wish to do so should they become brain dead.

If the donation rate of the past three weeks continues, the yearly total will rise to more than 80, surpassing an estimate by the Japan Society for Transplantation (JST).

Prior to the revisions, consent from the patient's family allowed the kidneys and pancreas to be removed for transplantation after a patient had suffered permanent cardiac arrest. About 100 such donations were made annually.

JST believes that some families who would have consented to organ donation under the conditions of the old law will be willing to consent to donation at the stage of brain death.

Of the five cases reported since the revisions came into effect, it is known that one of the donors had verbally expressed to his family his intention to donate his organs. The donors' wishes could not be confirmed in the other four cases.

In the case announced Sunday, the family reportedly told Japan Organ Transplant Network officials that they knew they could give consent for the man's organs to be donated, even if he had not explicitly expressed his wish to do so.

Jiro Nudeshima, a researcher at the Tokyo Foundation, said he thought people have come to accept the intention of the revised law.

"However, we don't know what the future holds, as organ donation is an unpredictable matter," he said.