April 2009

Rissho Kosei-kai Reissues Statement on Proposed Revision of Japan's Organ Transplant Law

On April 23, Rissho Kosei-kai, in the name of Rev. Yasutaka Watanabe, chair of its board of trustees, reissued a proposal on the revision of Japan's Organ Transplant Law. This was done after increasing calls in April by Japanese members of parliament for revision. The prospect of revision depended on a decision of the World Health Organization to delay setting new guidelines urging patients to refrain from receiving transplants of organs from outside their own countries because of the epidemic of swine flu across the globe. Japan's parliament is deliberating three proposals for revision of the Organ Transplant Law. It was reported that members of parliament belonging to parties of the ruling coalition intended to revise the law after debate this term.

On April 28, Rev. Keiichi Nakayama, head of Rissho Kosei-kai's External Affairs Group (Public Relations) visited the office buildings of members of both houses of parliament, and handed Rissho Kosei-kai's proposal to Mr. Norihisa Tamura, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Labour, and Welfare, and to Mr. Yasuhiro Tsuji, chairman of the House of Councillors Committee on Health, Labour, and Welfare. Rev. Nakayama also distributed copies of the proposal to other members of parliament. Earlier, on the 23rd, he submitted the proposal to members of parliament belonging to the Democratic Party of Japan. Moreover, on April 27, Rev. Takeshi Kawabata, director of the Rissho Kosei-kai's General Affairs Bureau, visited the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan in Tokyo and handed the proposal to cadre staff members, including Mr. Hiroyuki Hosoda, the secretary-general.

In its proposal, Rissho Kosei-kai points out that, in consideration of the basic principles and the process of enactment of the current law, two of the three proposals aim to ease the restrictions of the current law and expand opportunities for organ transplants in Japan. The proposal's eight sections for deliberation by parliament include exclusion of brain death as a criterion for establishing clinical death. One of the proposal's eight sections for deliberation by parliament says brain death cannot always be considered actual death. The proposal also calls for confirmation of people's consent to become donors, and for a declaration of intent by people under fifteen years of age. The proposal emphasizes that an organ transplant from a brain-dead patient is a special type of medical intervention based on the premise that one person's death can save another's life. It adds that the fundamental human rights of the donor and the right of someone to decide whether to become a donor deserve full and careful consideration.

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