New system for organ transplants between strangers to be studiedMonday 10th May, 05:14 AM JST
TOKYO —
The Japan Society for Transplantation decided Sunday to officially study a new system to pave the way for live organ transplants between strangers while removing the involvement of illicit organ brokers. The system will likely require registration and selection of patients by a public institution to enable people to donate their organs out of goodwill while blocking organ trafficking and illicit brokers.
The organization will carefully debate the need for such a system amid warnings from some medical experts that live organ transplants should not be openly promoted because they involve operations on donors’ healthy bodies.
In Japan, most organ transplants involve relatives and medical institutions do not normally conduct transplants between people who do not know each other.
While there is an official agency that serves as an intermediary to select patients for transplants from brain dead donors, the absence of a public institution to arrange transplants from living donors has sometimes forced potential donors to turn to illicit brokers.
Under a proposal being studied by the board of the Japan Society for Transplantation, the Japan Organ Transplant Network, which mediates transplants from brain dead donors, would act as an intermediary to pick organ recipients and register both the organ donors and recipients.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/new-system-for-organ-transplants-between-strangers-to-be-studied