Urgent Statement on Revised Organ Transplant Law

Today, July 13th, the House of Councillors (the Upper House of the Japanese parliament) passed the Revised Organ Transplant Law (Plan A). The law, as now revised, treats brain death as legal death across the board, making it possible to transplant a person's organs with only the approval of the person's family, even if the person's own intention regarding organ donation is unclear; moreover, this will now apply to persons under the age of 15, a group previously excluded from the law.

This revised law for the most part rides roughshod over the fundamental principles of the original Organ Transplant Law; it is a change for the worse, and will lead to serious problems in the future in Japan.

We believe that the revised law will leave a legacy of many fundamental problems. If for no other reason than that, we called for prudent and serious deliberations concerning the revision. The deliberations in both houses of the Diet ended too quickly, however, ignoring the will of the vast majority of the populace of Japan.

The revised law has as its first priority the alleviation of a shortage of organs, and is aimed at turning human organs into an industrial resource. It especially threatens the right to life of infants with "chronic brain death," who can continue to grow even after the diagnosis of brain death. We cannot help but have strong misgivings that this will bring about a big change in the Japanese attitude toward the dignity of life, as represented in traditional views on such topics as life and death, ethics, and values.

In connection with this general subject, Rissho Kosei-kai has issued several position papers in the past. In December 1991 we submitted "An Opinion Regarding the Issues of Brain Death and Organ Transplants" to Chair Michio Nagai of the Provisional Commission for the Study on Brain Death and Organ Transplantation. We sent "An Opinion Regarding the Proposed Law Regarding Organs and Transplants" to members of parliament and the mass media in June 1994. In March 2005 we submitted "Proposals Concerning the Revised Organ Transplant Law" to Chairman Taizo Sato of the Liberal Democratic Party's select committee on Brain Death, the Ethics of Life and Organ Transplantation as well as to Chairman Yoshito Sengoku of the Democratic Party's Policy Research Committee. Furthermore, we also submitted our "Repeated Proposals Concerning the Revised Organ Transplant Law" to the chairmen of the committees on Health, Labour, and Welfare of both houses of parliament in April of this year.

As people of faith we respect the sanctity of all life, and we will work tirelessly from the standpoint of protecting the sanctity of life, and we will continue reiterating an appeal based on our past assertions to our citizens in every area and on every level for the realization of a society that can protect the sanctity of life.

Rev. Yasutaka Watanabe
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Rissho Kosei-kai