http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110623p2a00m0na015000c.htmlDoctor, gang member face arrest over organ donation deal
Police are poised to arrest a 55-year-old doctor and four other suspects over suspicions that the doctor paid a yakuza gang member and other parties 10 million yen in exchange for an organ that he needed for a transplant, it has been learned.
Facing arrest are a 55-year-old doctor operating a medical clinic in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, the doctor's 48-year-old wife, a 37-year-old female restaurant worker, a 50-year-old member of a gang affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai yakuza group and a 47-year-old former member of a gang affiliated with the same yakuza group. The five are suspected of violating the Organ Transplant Law, which bans payments for organ donations.
It is the second time for police to uncover such a case, following a separate case at Uwajima Tokushukai Hospital in Ehime Prefecture in 2006. However, this case is the first for police to uncover the involvement of a gang member.
Since ethics guidelines supplied by the Japan Society for Transplantation generally restrict living-donor kidney transplants to those between family members, the doctor, who had been diagnosed with chronic kidney failure, apparently faked the adoption of the former gang member and prepared for a transplant at a general hospital in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward. However, he ran into trouble over payment at the last minute, and the operation was called off. It is believed that the doctor later received an organ from a separate donor.
Investigators said the doctor was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure in August 2005. He started receiving treatment though an external dialysis device to remove toxins through his blood, but he required treatment two or three times a week, with each session lasting several hours.
A transplant surgeon pointed out to the doctor that dialysis treatment could disrupt his life and his work, and although some patients continue dialysis treatment for several years, the doctor decided to get a transplant.
In February 2007, the doctor registered with the Japan Organ Transplant Network, and waited for a kidney from a dead person. However, the demand for organs far exceeds supply and patients are forced to wait 15 years on average to get an organ from someone who has been declared dead.
Investigative sources said that at one stage the doctor had planned to go to the Philippines to undergo a transplant using an organ from a living patient. However, after receiving international criticism over the practice of poor people supplying organs for money, the Philippine government in June 2008 banned nationals from supplying organs to foreigners. This apparently forced the doctor to give up the idea of getting a transplant there.
In the summer of 2009, he discussed his situation with a restaurant worker he knew, and the worker introduced him to the former yakuza through the 50-year-old gang member, with whom she was living at the time.
Investigators said that between October 2009 and April 2010, the doctor and his wife paid 10 million yen in six installments to the restaurant worker, the gang member, who was serving as an intermediary, and the former gang member in exchange for having the former gang member supply a kidney. Suspicions have arisen that the doctor faked the adoption of the former gang member, submitting paperwork to the Edogawa Ward Office in January 2010 to meet the Japan Organ Transplant Network's guidelines.
Though the doctor eventually gave up on the idea of receiving an organ from the former gang member, the Organ Transplant Law bans people from giving or receiving money for organ donations or making promises to exchange money, and people's actions can be judged illegal even if the operation does not go ahead. Violations of the law carry a penalty of up to five years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 5 million yen.
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http://mainichi.jp/select/today/archive/news/2011/06/23/20110623k0000e040066000c.html(Mainichi Japan) June 23, 2011