Details of a Researcher - Maeda, Shoichi

Maeda, Shoichi

写真a

Affiliation: Graduate School of Health Management （Shonan Fujisawa）

Position: Professor

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Technology related to medicine and medical treatment has advanced rapidly in recent years and enabled the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of illnesses that were previously untreatable. On the other hand, technological advances have also created new ethical, legal and social issues. Issues related to prenatal diagnoses and elective abortions and end of life care and withholding and termination of life support are just a few examples. Within public health, many ethical, legal and social issues have been created, such as determining the order of priority for immunization against new infectious diseases. Within such an environment, the pressing issue of research and education relating to medical ethics has become all the more important. Technology used for medical treatment has also undergone remarkable progress over the past few years. However, this sophisticated technology has also become increasingly complex. Combined with a shortage of healthcare professionals, this has also led to an increasing number of medical errors. Such medical errors have become an important issue, not only in Japan, but also across the world, leading to a strong demand for more research and education on safe medical practices and how to respond to medical accidents. Dealing with error is not only applicable at the bedside. The approval of full-scale clinical research using stem cells requires thoughtful consideration of how to deal with clinical research ethics. These rapid changes exceed the boundaries of the traditional theoretical framework and force reconsideration of current public policy. Our laboratory aims for those involved in research, practice and public administration in a variety of fields to work together to study medical ethics and medical safety issues and suggest public policy improvements.

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Other Affiliation 【 Display / hide 】

School of Medicine, 医療政策・管理学, 兼担教授

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Research Areas 【 Display / hide 】

Humanities & Social Sciences / New fields of law (medical law)
Life Science / Medical management and medical sociology (clinical ethics)

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Research Keywords 【 Display / hide 】

Medical Law, Medical Ethics, Research Ethics, Clinical Ethics, Patient Safety Management, Risk Management

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Papers 【 Display / hide 】

Reuse of cardiac organs in transplantation: An ethical analysis

Nakazawa E., Maeda S., Yamamoto K., Akabayashi A., Uetake Y., Shaw M.H., Demme R.A., Akabayashi A.

BMC Medical Ethics （BMC Medical Ethics) 19 （ 1 ） 2018.08

　View Summary

Background: This paper examines the ethical aspects of organ transplant surgery in which a donor heart is transplanted from a first recipient, following determination of death by neurologic criteria, to a second recipient. Retransplantation in this sense differs from that in which one recipient undergoes repeat heart transplantation of a newly donated organ, and is thus referred to here as "reuse cardiac organ transplantation." Methods: Medical, legal, and ethical analysis, with a main focus on ethical analysis. Results: From the medical perspective, it is critical to ensure the quality and safety of reused organs, but we lack sufficient empirical data pertaining to medical risk. From the legal perspective, a comparative examination of laws in the United States and Japan affirms no illegality, but legal scholars disagree on the appropriate analysis of the issues, including whether or not property rights apply to transplanted organs. Ethical arguments supporting the reuse of organs include the analogous nature of donation to gifts, the value of donations as inheritance property, and the public property theory as it pertains to organs. Meanwhile, ethical arguments such as those that address organ recycling and identity issues challenge organ reuse. Conclusion: We conclude that organ reuse is not only ethically permissible, but even ethically desirable. Furthermore, we suggest changes to be implemented in the informed consent process prior to organ transplantation. The organ transplant community worldwide should engage in wider and deeper discussions, in hopes that such efforts will lead to the timely preparation of guidelines to implement reuse cardiac organ transplantation as well as reuse transplantation of other organs such as kidney and liver.
- Access to Document (DOI)

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Research Projects of Competitive Funds, etc. 【 Display / hide 】

偶発的所見等の取扱いに関する法的課題の検討

2023.04

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2026.03

基盤研究(B), Principal investigator
医学研究・医療・健康診断における偶発的所見の取扱いに関する法的課題の検討

2020.04

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2023.03

MEXT,JSPS, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), Principal investigator