Abstract
Organ transplantation, a long-term controversial problem, was legislated in Japan on 16th October 1997 and we Japanese can legally give and take organs of a brain-dead person. However, this does not mean the controversy has completely settled. This problem still remains worth careful reconsideration in terms not merely of objective but also of subjective matter. Profound and suggestive thought has often been produced from a delicate balance between these two attitudes. It might not be meaningless to ask, of course without any sarcastic nuance, if the proponents of organ plants could simply be honest about their opinion when their beloved has become brain-dead. What is logically correct is not necessarily morally right. Now that we have reached the point of no return where the desire to prolong our life by using others'organs is legally and technically realizable, we should be more careful than ever in exercising the right. We sometimes need to moderate and even control it on our individual responsibility by nurturing sympathy, the sense of humanity, for both a donor's and a recipient's sides.
