脳神経外科臨床における尊厳死

概要

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At the beginning, I would like to express my opposition to the Ad Hoc Committee on Brain Death and Organ Transplantaion in Japan. Although I have treated many brain dead patients as a neurosurgeon, my conclusion seems not to be derived from scientific knowledge, but from an unexplainable but perhaps natural reaction to Japanese culture. I know very well as a scientist that brain dead patients are all but dead as a human beings. However, they are usually not dying alone, but have their deeply sorrowful family members around them. Their psychological states can never be relieved or be replaced by "humanism" in such moments. Rather, I would like to let them die in dignity, withholding further active treatments, acting instead as the representative of God or as a priest at the farewell ceremony between the dying patient and the family members and close friends. I would also like to avoid organ transplantations. The reason is that I think there is a severe shortage of donors in Japan, unlike in the United States or the European countries. The health care system in our country is so complete that every patient who wants and has a reasonable indication of the need for transplantation has the right to be so treated. It would be chaos in Japan, much more severe than in any other country, if patients realized that transplantation works very well and they were in competition for donors.
日本医学哲学・倫理学会の論文
1992-10-23