ARW HW 12/15

a) When I use the idea in ELP Reader, I will donate my organ, because if I have no hope to recover, I would like to use myself and help other people. I think it will be the last thing what I can do to other people and if other people saved, my life will be valuable. (Consequentialism?) However, I found a resource which says that test of determination of the brain death is not reliable. It was established 1985. It is more than 20 years ago! And it is very hard to decide brain death, especially children. Moreover, there was a very scary case in US that a boy recovered after being determined as in brain death. His family had already decided the organ transplant and of course it was canceled. The most unbelievable thing was that he was conscious when doctor tell their family about the brain death. According to the boy, he screamed "I'm not dead!" in his heart. When I read this article, I thought I don't want to be died like that (the boys was saved though). If the determination of brain death is accurate, I will donate my organ with pleasure. This way of thinking will be regarded as beneficence.

b) I would not allow my parents to decide if I were brain dead and had not mentioned about it. If I had already made up my mind to donate and told my parents, I would like my parents to respect my opinion. My body is mine and my life is mine. Therefore, my parents don't have right to control my body and life. (right ethics?) However, my parents, especially my mother, would not donate my organ even if I had told them to do it. When I asked about organ plant to my mother, my mother said "I can't give your organ to other people. I probably can't regard brain death as your death." In Morioka article, it says the most of Japanese think brain death equals to human death. However, I think people can answer like this, because they don't know how the brain death is like. I don't know ethier, but as you can know from this article (http: //search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101112f3.html ), person in brain death is not cold like a corpse and hair still grows. If my parents saw me in this situation, I think they can't donate my organ even if I told them to do it. However, I think it is okay, because if they made decision to donate (in both case: I hadn't mentioned about it or had told them to decide transplant before brain death), they will suffer more about their decision than not giving organ. I don't want to be my family suffer. So I will be persuaded by my family's decision. For me, even if there are a lot of people who are waiting for donation, my family is the most important thing. Therefore, I would like to choose and respect best way not to harm my family. (Partly nonmaleficence?) (But I ABSOLUTELY oppose to a situation like haven't mentioned or I have denied organ transplant and my parents decide to do it. )
Considering my young child, I would not donate my children's organ, because I will not accpets brain death as my child's death. I might think that my child will recover some day. Moreover, I don'7 have right to control my child's life and body.
I thought that we should tell our own opinion to other members of our family to reduce agony of them as much as we can.
c) The current law of Japan is not ideal. In the revised law, an organ transplant can be carried out only with family's agreement. There is an assumption that "family" have good relationship with the patient and know about him/her well. However, in these days, there are many people who abuse their children or other member of the family. Futher, do you think that a second wife/husband really know about their children who has no blood relationship? "The family" is not always good and It is very scary such people to make decision. Even if the patient tell other member of family, family can conceal and ignore it. The situation like the patient want to live more, but his/her family give up might happen. The most important thing is to respect the patient's will. However, in this law, it is possible to violate the patient's rights and desire.
The new organ transplant law is based on consequentialims. The condition which is explained above (family agreement), the abolishment of age limit, and to regard braind death=human death are all made to facilitate to do organ transplant, because in Japan, there are too many people who are waiting for donors. There are lot of people who will be saved by this revised law. There are some people who will be harmed by this law. The number of the people who are harmed might be not as much as people who gain benefit. However, the number is not the proble. We should not forget about the mainority and examined carefully about organ transplant.