The Diet resumed deliberations April 21 on revising the Organ Transplant Law. Parliamentary moves on the issue have been virtually dormant for three years. The deliberations have suddenly gained momentum and four revision proposals have surfaced.

The current law, which was enacted in June 1997 after more than 10 years of public debate, allows organ transplants from a brain-dead person only if he or she is 15 years old or over. A person who is willing to donate his or her organs for transplant should he or she become brain dead must indicate his or her intention in the form of a donor's card or elsewhere in writing. The would-be donor's family members must also approve the organ transplant before it can take place.

It is important to note that the law itself does not recognize brain death as the actual death of a person. Thus organs for transplant cannot be removed from a brain-dead person automatically. Under the law, an individual citizen decides whether his or her brain death should be accepted as actual death. An organ transplant is possible only from a person who accepts brain death as actual death. There is no general consensus in Japan on the question of whether to accept brain death as a person's death. But there are people who need organ transplants. The law was aimed at breaking this deadlock.