Abstract
Even after the revision of the Organ Transplant Law, organ transplantation continues to be mired in a dire situation. The causes of this situation must be understood when taking steps to reverse it; in fact, these causes have been partially discussed in the past. Issues include both hard and soft aspects, such as institutional issues not solved by legal revision alone, prejudice, and misunderstandings of transplantation rooted in a cultural/historical background.
Potential measures for improving the situation include: revision of the transplantation system (enhancement of in-hospital coordinators, simplification of transplantation suitability assessments, saving labor in organ donation verification) ; administrative reform (organ procurement organizations, brain death notification system, opting out) ; revision of the health insurance system (insurance coverage of brain death determination, various additional fees adjustment factor) ; and educational/public awareness activities (secondary education, media cooperation, participation by recipients and others).
The time has come to investigate methods to increasing organ donations as a national project.
