XV Issue 10 Organ donation from brain-dead patients has become a psychiatric issue in Japanese transplant medicine.
Brain death is recognized as human death only in the context of organ transplantation in Japan.
Since many Japanese physicians deny that brain death constitutes the death of an individual, there is no solid, general consensus in Japan about what constitutes brain death. Recently, even the number of kidney transplantations have been reduced as advancements in dialysis have increased the chance of survival. Liver transplantation is a different story. Japanese patients who know the procedure exists cannot understand why they are not able to receive transplantation. In the absence of other life-saving options, patients and their families want a transplant at any cost.