A leading sociologist has slammed a proposal under consideration by a government-funded study group that the current law on organ transplants be revised to allow the procurement of organs from brain-dead patients with just the written consent of family members.
"The proposed legal revision, which would overturn the basic principle of the current law that requires prior written consent from donors, should never be made," said Jiro Nudeshima at Mitsubishi Kasei Institute of Life Sciences in Machida, western Tokyo.
Under the Organ Transplant Law, an individual must have signed a government-authorized organ donor card so that if the person is later diagnosed as brain dead, the donor status is legal.