Masahiro Morioka -  Panel 16  ENOJP Paris
Channel: European Network of Japanese Philosophy
Date: 2018-03-06

“The Dignity of the Body: A Philosophical Implication of
the Japanese Organ Transplant Law Before Amendment” — Masahiro Morioka, Waseda University

The Japanese Organ Transplant law was first established in 1997. In this law, a person was able to choose whether or not her death was to be determined in terms of brain death by declaring her prior declaration. This law was very unique in that it allowed people to choose between traditional death and brain death. In 2009, the law was revised to allow family members of a brain-dead patient to decide whether to determine the patient’s death in terms of brain death (when the patient had not declared her wishes). Japanese Organ Transplant Law became one that was very similar to those of other countries.
I believe that there was a unique view of life and the body behind the first law. In the first law, when a brain-dead patient has not made her prior declaration on the determination of brain death, her body is to be protected from any type of organ removals made by other people, even if such removals are to be made to save the lives of other suffering patients. This suggests that in the first law, there was the philosophical idea that the brain-dead body has its own dignity, and this dignity cannot be violated by other people’s desire to survive. This rule holds true regardless of whether the brain-dead patient is considered to be dead or not. And this dignity is overridden only when the brain-dead patient herself has declared her wish to determine human death in terms of brain death.
Traditionally, human dignity has been attributed to human mind, particularly the personhood equipped with self-consciousness, free will, and rationality, not to the human body itself. However, the first law strongly suggests that there is a dignity that should be attributed to the human body. This might be an idea that can threaten the basis of European image of human beings. French bioethics law states that “Le corps humain est inviolable.” Thus, French law seems to declare that the human body has its own dignity, however, with regard to organ transplants from brain-dead patients, this law is considered to ignore the dignity or inviolability of the human body.
Is this because a brain-dead patient is “dead,” or is this because a brain-dead patient does not have self-consciousness, or is this because inviolability is cancelled in order to “save” the lives of other people?


This talk took place at the 3rd Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy in Paris, Université Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris 1) and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) from November 2-4, 2017.

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