Research on Brain Death and Organ Transplantation from the Perspective of Comparative Religion

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This is the research report for the project, "Research on Brain Death and Organ Transplantation from the Perspective of Comparative Religion", which was carried out under the auspice of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) over the period of 2002-05. The core members of this project formed a team called "Research Group of Life (Inochi no kenkyukai)". We carried out extensive fieldwork in order to investigate the situation of organ transplantation in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, and the USA. We gained valuable knowledge and experience from the time we spent in these countries that each respectively have diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.In light of current trends in the international field of bioethical research, the team members agreed that our studies should not be limited to focus on brain death and organ transplantation and have pursued their interests in related areas such as cloning, reuse of embryonic stem cells, artificial fertilization, … More euthanasia, enhancement, etc.The strength of the "Research Group of Life (Inochi no kenkyukai)" rests in its interdisciplinary membership. By bringing together specialists from the fields of religion, medicine, medical law, philosophy, and anthropology, members are able to actively engage in conversation with one another to share ideas and develop an unbiased stance on the issues at hand. We also invited bioethics specialists and medical doctors from both Japan and overseas to our routine workshop, to further enrich our discussion on bioethics.The international conference workshop entitled "Bio Science and Spirituality : A New Approach to Bioethics" that we hosted in October 2003 at Gakushi Kaikan Hall in Tokyo is particularly worthy of note. Approximately 300 people attended the conference and also brought the attention of news media both inside and outside of Japan. Prof. William B.Hurlbut of Stanford University, a member of US President Bush's Council on Bioethics, joined the conference in order to exchange his expertise with us.Though this Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research officially ended in March of 2006, all the members of "Research Group of Life (Inochi no kenkyukai)" plan to continue their joint work on the issues. We would like to minimize the influences of commercialism in biotechnology and to avoid the mistake to accept non-critical arguments based on the Judeo-Christian traditions of the West. We feel responsible for developing our own views based on life philosophy of Asian culture, and for sharing them with scholars around the world. Less