Chen Hsi-sheng (陳希聖), a lecturer at Tamkang University, died at the Taiwan University Hospital (台大醫院) yesterday after failing to receive a liver transplant in time.
Earlier this month Chen's liver failed, leaving him in desperate need of a transplant.
When he failed to obtain a liver from a recently deceased or clinically dead person, his relatives -- in an effort to highlight the severe restrictions in the law governing organ transplants -- offered their own livers to any patient who needed a liver transplant to survive.
The current regulations prohibit donations from living donors unless the donor is of at least the third degree of kinship.
A kinship degree system measures the closeness of the relationship between two persons related by blood, such as parent and child, siblings, grandparent and grandchild or uncle and nephew.
Under the Organ Transplant Clause (
The health department has drafted an amendment to current law to allow organ transplants from living donors up to the fifth degree of kinship, but the draft is still awaiting Cabinet review next month before legislative action can be taken.
Chen's dire situation came to light a week ago and has received intense public attention ever since.
Earlier, the Department of Health said that although it understood the suffering of people involved in the case, there was little it could do because it was bound by law to uphold the restrictions.
Two days ago, the health department made an exception to its kinship rules on organ transplants in the hope of saving him. However, hospital authorities said the move had come too late.
After the exception was made, Taiwan University Hospital (台大醫院) found a cousin of the fifth degree of kinship to Chen that was a suitable donor.
But hospital doctors agreed that Chen's condition was no longer suitable for a transplant as he was suffering from serious septicemia and multiple organ failure.
Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), director-general of the health department, said he hopes that there will not be another case like Chen's before the regulation is amended.
"But the health department will provide individual evaluation on whether to loosen the restrictions regarding similar situations as they arise," he said.
Chen's family sees his case as potentially affecting others. "His sacrifice is meaningful because it highlights the government's unreasonable legal restraints on organ transplants," said Chen Hui-chi (陳惠琪), the sister of the patient.
She recalled that one of the last things Chen said to her before he fell into a coma was, "You must save me."
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