医学哲学 医学倫理
Online ISSN : 2433-1821
Print ISSN : 0289-6427
子から親への肝臓提供における倫理的な問題の検討
池谷 健
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ジャーナル フリー

2003 年 21 巻 p. 46-54

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Organ transplants receives scant social approval if the persons who offer to donate their organs are the weak. Acceptance that a brain dead patient is a dead person does not take root in Japan, and as of May 31, 2002 the number of liver transplants from brain dead persons is only 18 cases from 16 donors. On the other hand, the number of liver transplants from living donors has already exceeded 2000 cases albeit the registry of such cases is not exhaustive. The Japanese people recognize the donation from a living person as proper because the organ is transplanted from a healthy person to a weak one, but actually one third of the liver transplants from living donors is said to be transplants from a child to one of its parents. Thus whether or not the principle of "from the strong to the weak" is followed in all cases must be checked continuously. An ethical problem occurs in the case of the donation from the child to its parent, especially in the case of a young child who is living together with its parents. There were a few reported examples of such liver transplants : for example recently the offer from a 20-year-old daughter to her father was reported. The operating surgeon said that if the donor is over 20 years old, the organ donation is made by the free will and hence becomes possible legally. The surgeon further asserted that if the donors are under 20 years old, it is sufficient to wait until they become 20 years old. But the premise that parents are always the child's best advisers does not hold good under all conditions ; the decision-making of 20-year olds needs an environment where no social, economic, and religious pressure is exerted. When such an environment is lacking, the rational choice of an organ donation to one's parent is not guaranteed.

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© 2003 日本医学哲学・倫理学会
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