The practice of informed consent under a patients' rights law should be promoted before allowing organ transplants from brain-dead donors, a leading Canadian researcher of medical anthropology said.
"The idea of informed consent is not fully understood, and is certainly not practiced very much in Japan," said Professor Margaret Lock of the Department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal. "Removing organs should be done only when families of donors fully understand it and want it," said Lock, who has visited this country nearly 10 times for research. Lock mentioned past cases in Japan in which the wishes of neither the donors nor their families were confirmed before the removal of organs from patients declared brain dead, including a transplant in 1968 at Sapporo Medical College and another in 1990 at Osaka University Hospital.
"Japan should have patients' rights legislation. Informed consent is a part of relevant laws in North America," she said in an interview. "I strongly believe that patients must participate actively in their own health by sharing information with doctors," Lock said, adding that doctors should make efforts to use everyday language in discussing with patients their medical condition.