뇌사판정위원회 관련 법령과 윤리적 고찰*

Most transplantation has been done by donation from living donors rather than dead in Korea. Lack of organs is also a big problem. It is said that the Human Organ Transplantation Law is an obstacle to harvest organs from dead people. The author tries to show limits and ethical considerations of the brain death decision committee of the Human Organ Transplantation Law.

The limits are;

1. The roles of committee are overlapped as deciding brain death and assuring ethical affairs.

2. The committee causes a delay of harvesting organs from donors, so donors should endure unnecessary procedures such as medication keeping respiration and heart function.

3. In the law, family member and physician can request for the decision of brain death. Before this, it is important to confirm the will of donor.

The author suggests for the above limits;

1. To devide roles of the committee into two. One is for physicians to decide brain death finally, the other is for ethic committee to examine ethical affairs such as assuring donor's will for donation.

2. To adjust the time of the committee meeting between the first and the second brain death examination.

3. To strengthen assuring the will of donor's for organ donation. For this, chances for expressing donation should be expended before losing competency.