Organ transplantation taboo

In Japan there is considerable cultural resistance to organ transplantation, with the result that Japanese must go abroad to receive an organ transplantation. Politicians as of 1997 were reluctant to pass a law permitting transplants in Japan. The country does not yet give brain death any legal status; a stopped heart is the Japanese definition of death, and this effectively prevents transplants of organs for which the heart must still be beating at the time of transplantation, namely the heart, lung and liver.