スピーキング対策　Organ donationその２

Organ donation system in Japan.

Almost a decade has passed since the Organ Transplant Law went into effect in October 1997 in our country. The 76th organ transplant from a brain death patient was transformed this month. More than 12,000 patients are waiting for a transplant in Japan, but only 208 people received organs this year. There are 75 cases of cadeveric donation, and 12 brain death donations this year. There is a gap between supply and demand in organ transplantation. I read an article that we should have opt-out system to increase the number of available organs. I don’t think this opt-out system is has caught in on quickly in our country.

Countries which have opt-out system such as Spain, France, Italy tend to have high cadaveric transplantation rate. However, there is an exception. Greece has fewer donor rates per head of population compared to the some countries which don’t take opt-out system. The US has a high organ donor rate of 26.6 per million. Cadeveric donation rate in Greece is less than quarter of America. Some countries such as America, Ireland have high donation rate in spite of having an opt-in system. This partly reflects the objection rate among the donor’s relatives, or nationality. The refusal rate of relatives is different from country to country. In Portugal, the refusal rate is only 6%, whereas the rate is 40% in UK.

Japanese people fear to let the surgeons to remove their beloved family member’s organs. The fear overwhelmed the benefit of organ donation. Before changing the system, we have to change the old beliefs that we have to take our whole body to heaven. That will need some help from various fields such as religion, politics, and education.

If we take the opt-out system, we are all assumed to be a potential donor unless we had opted out of the scheme. It would take away the individual’s fundamental right to decide. I think the donation of the organs should remain a gift for the society. We can be opted out of the system if we choose, but I think it is a better idea if we can willingly offer our organs after death.

I am sorry to hear that a lot of Japanese people passed away while they had been waiting for the transplant. Some people go to America for the transplant. In America, nearly 30,000 organ transplants are carried out per year. However, many American people are waiting for the transplant operation. It is difficult for Japanese people to go to America to have transplantation, since it costs tremendous amount of money and it will endanger patients’ lives to take airplanes. To help these people, we have to increase the number of people who have donor cards by educational campaign, or by allocating more organ transplant coordinator in every hospital. I think the development of artificial organs or the embryonic-stem-cell technology might help to solve the problem in the future.

参考記事はThe Economistのコチラ

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