Legal

Kidney donor preparation prior to death ruled illegal by court in Japan

OSAKA, Jun 09 (Reuters) - The Osaka District court ordered Kansai Medical
University in Osaka Prefecture and one of its doctors to pay 200,000 yen for illegally preparing to harvest the kidneys of a dying patient, the Daily
Yomiyuri reported on May 21.

Judge Yukihiro Taniguchi awarded the damages to the mother of a woman who died in 1993 at the age of 29 following brain surgery at the university's hospital. However, the judge denied the plaintiff's claim that by inserting a catheter for the infusion of hypothermic fluids in preparation for kidney removal, hospital physicians abandoned efforts to save the patient's life.

The mother had demanded 15 million yen in compensation from the university and a physician in the hospital's emergency ward.

The deceased woman, whose name is being withheld, underwent surgery for an intracranial hemorrhage at Kansai Medical University's emergency ward. Four days later, hospital staff inserted a catheter to ensure that her kidneys remained in good condition. She died 3 days later. After her heart stopped beating, her kidneys were removed and given to two recipients.

Hospital officials assert that the procedure is used more than 100 times a
year. "The cooling method is a way to provide organ recipients with as good kidneys as possible," Takao Sonoda of the Japan Organ Transplant Network told the newspaper. "The ruling is expected to affect the process by which kidneys are harvested from dead patients," the newspaper reports. Transplant surgeons and some patient groups have expressed dismay over the ruling.

"Without prior approval, it is illegal for a doctor to harm the body of a
living patient for any reason other than treatment," the judge ruled. "The
patient in this case informed her husband that she wanted to donate her
kidneys. But this was not a definite indication that she consented to the
insertion of a catheter and there is no legal basis for a husband to give
permission for such an operation on his wife's behalf," Taniguchi ruled.

"The fact that the insertion of catheters is widely practiced is no reason
for denying its illegality," he added.

Copyright 1998 by Reuters. Story by Sandra Katzman.