After years of inaction, members of the Diet must make the difficult decision of whether brain death should be stipulated as human death to pave the way for allowing organ transplants from brain-dead donors in Japan.
Two lawmaker-proposed bills that would allow organ transplants are expected to be put to a vote April 24 at a plenary session of the Lower House, nearly three decades after the first and only heart transplant was performed in the country.
The main difference between the two bills is that one calls for legal recognition of brain death as human death while the other does not make such a petition. In the former bill, brain death is defined as death of the whole brain as opposed to just death of the brain stem. All political parties except the Japanese Communist Party have allowed their members to decide for themselves whether to support one of the bills or vote against both. Members of the JCP are expected to reject both.