On the Relationship between Advanced Medicine and Japanese Traditional Views of Death in Perspective of Religious Studies.

本研究试图从宗教研究的角度来思考先进医学与日本传统死亡观之间的关系。然后，我把脑死亡和器官移植的问题作为先进医学的一个例子，并通过考察在冲绳群岛被称为苏雅的墓穴上的棚状结构来考虑日本传统的死亡观。我的临时结论如下：1)在日本社会，自1968年和田博士进行了第一例心脏移植手术以来，死亡的概念逐渐变得模糊。特别是自20世纪80年代末以来，第二人称死亡的概念出现，并被应用到ICU脑死亡的情况中，这种模棱两可的倾向更加明显，1997年通过的《器官移植法》中包含了死亡自主的概念。2)在日本很多捐赠者家庭中都存在着捐赠者在受赠者体内“活着”的想法，有时还存在着与救赎有关的宗教意识，以弥补他们的损失和悲痛。毕竟，这种想法是基于心死的概念，而不是脑死亡的概念，可能有日本传统死亡观的影响。3)我在大岛岛、对马岛和池崎岛的调查显示了墓穴上的棚状结构的各个方面，尽管它的功能和意义发生了变化，但仍保留在这些地区。尽管新生物技术和先进医学发展迅速，但我们在这些领域发现的传统死亡观似乎在不知不觉中影响着捐赠者家庭。

This research have tried to consider the relationship between the advanced medicine and the Japanese traditional views of death in perspective of religious studies. Then, I treated the problem of brain death and organ transplants as an example in the advanced medicine, and considered the Japanese traditional views of death by examing the shedlike structure on grave, called "Suya" at Oki islands and so forth. My interim conclusions are as follows : 1)In Japanese society, since the first heart transplant by Dr.Wada in 1968, the concept of death gradually has become ambiguous. Especially since the later 1980s, the concept of "death of the second person" appeared and was applied to the situation of brain death in ICU, and this ambiguous tendency was more clear, as the Organ Transplant Law that was passed in 1997, and included the concept of self-determination of death, shows. 2)The idea that donors "live on" in the bodies of recipients has been found in so many donor families in Japan, and sometimes there is religious consciousness related to salvation for their loss and grief. After all, this idea is based on the concept of heart death, not of brain death, and there may be an influence of Japanese traditional views of death. 3)My investigation at Oki-Dozen, Tsushima, and Iki islands shows the various aspects of the shedlike structure on grave, "Suya" that remains in these areas, although changing its functions and significances. In spite of rapid development of new biotechnology and advanced medicine, such traditional views of death as we find in these areas seem to influence the donor families unconsciously.