Boy not allowed to get life-saving transplant in Japan
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Eleven-year-old Hiroki Ando will likely die if he does not get a new heart.
Hiroki suffers from cardiomyopathy, which inflames and impairs the heart. The same disease killed his sister five years ago.
"We have two children in our family who got a disease that happens one out of every 100,000 people. I am sorry for my children. We are having my daughter and Hiroki going through this harsh experience," said father Ryuki Ando.
"We were told by his doctor at the end of last year that the heart transplant operation was the only way for him to survive," Ando said.
But the law in Japan prohibits anyone under the age of 15 from donating organs -- meaning Hiroki can't get a new heart in his home country.
Lawmaker Taro Kono is spearheading efforts to change the law, which was enacted in 1997. Japan's parliament is now debating four proposed amendments-- including one that would scrap the age limit. But, beyond the age matter, the issue of organ transplantation in general, has been a difficult one for the country because of perceptions of brain death. Some refuse to accept it if their loved ones' hearts are still beating.
"For a long time, it's the heart that mattered in Japan. Some religions ask us not to declare being brain dead as death. But that is not the majority," Kono said. "So it is simply that we have been doing things this way and a lot of people are very skeptical about it."
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/12/japan.organ.transplant/index.html
