Opposition group tries to delay organ law

A group of opposition lawmakers proposed Tuesday that the Upper House amend a bill to revise the Organ Transplant Law, seeking to delay the abolishment of the current minimum age of 15 for donors.

While the bill that cleared the Lower House last week would scrap the age limit of 15 or under for organ donors, the proposed amendment calls for maintaining the current age limit for a year to enable the creation of a new government panel to examine the matter.

Led by Keiko Chiba and Yuko Mori of the Democratic Party of Japan, the group of DPJ and Social Democratic Party members in the Upper House also aims to counter the provision in the original bill of recognizing people who are brain dead as legally dead.