Tokyo: Japan has logged the 1,000th case of organ donations from brain-dead people, 26 years after the country’s organ transplant law came into force in 1997, according to the Japan Organ Transplant Network.
The 1,000th donor was a man in his 60s who had been declared brain-dead at a hospital in western Japan based on the law, the network said. His organs were harvested on Saturday, and his heart, lungs, liver and kidneys were to be transplanted to recipients.
While the number of organ donations from brain-dead people has been on the rise, there is still a shortage of donors as less than 3 percent of patients seeking organs have actually received transplants.
Japan’s first organ donation under the law was conducted in 1999. Initially, donations often numbered less than 10 per year as organ donation required a written declaration of intent from donors.
In 2010, the law was revised to allow donations with the consent of a family member and to allow donations from children under the age of 15.
