Abstract
The medical cost to care for a person who has been declared brain dead at a hospital and whose family does not want to recognize him or her as being dead should be paid from a social insurance plan to which a patient belongs. There are and will continue to be, due in part to the Japanese social customs or religious beliefs, some families of patients whe consider the patients to be living human beings until primary body functions, such as pulse, respiration, and pupil response, cease. In some cases, however, the financial resources of these families are insufficient to meet the medical cost incurred. The objectives of the medical insurance plans, which are part of the social insurance program as a whole managed by the Government, are not limited to help the patients to recover from illness by providing them medical benefits, but are expanded to help their families from financial ruin due to expenses required otherwise. One of the objectives of the plans is to protect insured persons from financial ruin due to medical costs incurred when catastrophic illness strikes. However, it is important to point out that another objective of these plans is to protect the families from financial difficulties due to medical costs and funeral expenses. As a conclusion, medical costs should be paid from the social insurance type of medical insurance plans, to which the patient belongs, to the families who believe that brain death does not constitute the end of life.
