Opinions of the families of cardiopulmonary arrested patients about transplantation

The first transplantation procedures were performed more than one year after the Japanese transplantation law became effective. The law has, however, a contradiction defining brain death, which is recognized only when transplantation is planned. We surveyed attitudes about the law and transplantation itself. Questionnaires were mailed to the families of 1058 cardiopulmonary arrested (CPA) patients because they have feelings similar to the families of brain dead patients. The mortality of the patients was 96.0%. Of ail questionnaires, 277 were completed correctly. Only 8.7% of the respondents were satisfied with the law. Most of the others emphasized the necessity for more discussion about the definition of brain death. With respect to transplantation itself, 40.8% agreed to be donors, 21.7% agreed to donate patient's organs, and 30.8% agreed to donate organs of other family members. The agreement was higher for the younger and the religious respondents. Of the supporters, 30.0-46.3% proposed that all organs be available for transplantation. Of the opponents of transplantation, 41.7-77.7% were unable to reply because they lacked experience in this situation. This suggests that most of the respondents want a revision of the law, and that they would agree to a proposal of transplantation when confronted with the option.