Organ tranplants and law in Japan

Japanese transplant law and practice are in flux. Recent news stories convey different parts of the story.

Japan’s Parliament Eases Rules on Organ Transplants, Death Law
July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s parliament approved legislation to ease restrictions on organ transplants in a move that backers say will save thousands of lives.
The upper house today approved a bill passed in the lower chamber last month that eliminates the need for a written will for organ donations. The new rules also accept a lack of brain function as a legal definition of death.
Doctors performed 11 heart transplants in Japan last year, according to the Japanese Circulation Society, compared with more than 2,000 in the U.S. The 12-year-old limitations lawmakers voted to end today had forced Japanese to travel overseas for transplants “as a last resort to survive,” according to a joint statement from medical groups including the Japan Society for Transplantation.
Each year, about 400 Japanese die because they aren’t able to get a heart transplant, while 2,000 pass away without a new liver, according to statistics presented to lawmakers last year by the society.

Travelling overseas--to the U.S.--for a heart transplant isn't an easy thing to arrange:An organ in U.S. won't be cheap

" Japanese who traveled to the United States to get new hearts were charged as much as about $1.63 million for the operation in 2008, or five times higher than in previous years, medical sources well-versed in organ transplants said Thursday.
...The average fee charged to 42 Japanese who went to the U.S. for heart transplants between 1998 and 2008 rose to about ¥80 million last year, compared with between ¥30 million and ¥70 million in the past, they said.
One child patient was charged as much as ¥160 million for the operation last year, while another was required to put down a deposit of ¥400 million in March, the sources said.
In the U.S., the only country that accepts Japanese for heart transplants, nationals are charged $300,000 on average in hospital and physician fees for the operation, they said, adding that the figure does not include pre- and posttreatment fees."

Japan lifts ban on children donating organs
"Japan lifted a ban Monday on organ donations from children, reversing a restriction that created such a dearth of small organs in the country that young patients were forced to seek transplants abroad.
The law will allow children, defined as those under 15, who are brain dead to donate their organs — a sea change in this country, where organ donating is sensitive because of Buddhist beliefs consider the body sacred and reject its desecration."

Kids under 15 can give organs
"The bill, known as Plan A, which won Lower House approval last month, allows brain-dead children under age 15 to be an organ donor with the family's consent and recognizes brain death as legal death.
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...The current transplant law, enacted 12 years ago, forbids brain-dead people under age 15 from becoming an organ donor. Supporters of Plan A had aimed to revise the law to increase the self-sufficiency of domestic organ availability, but some lawmakers argued brain death is too sensitive an issue and thus should not be universally recognized as actual death. " (HT: Jun Wako)

Related recent post: Children can't get organ donations in Japan, because they can't be deceased donors