Now that the Diet has passed a legislator-proposed bill to allow organ transplants from brain-dead donors, some patients may have a chance in the near future to receive organs in this country. The new law ends a 30-year self-imposed ban on such transplants by the medical profession.
Experts generally reacted positively to the new law, in which the definition of brain death is applied only to willing donors. However, they also urged measures to protect the rights of both donors and recipients.
"The compromise law is rational and acceptable. I think it is a good result of a political negotiation," said Shohei Yonemoto, head of the program on life science and society at Mitsubishi Kasei Institute of Life Sciences in Tokyo.