Organ donation a matter of life or death

Lin Chia-yiun (林家筠), a 16-month old baby girl from Nantou, is in the last stage of cirrhosis of the liver. She has been on the waiting list for a liver transplant since she was two months old.

Chia-yiun was born with blocked bile ducts, whose function is to carry bile out of the liver.

Although Chia-yiun had surgery to repair the dysfunction a month after her birth, her liver tissue has been seriously damaged by the build-up of bile caused by the block.

One month after the operation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital's (CGMH) Kaohsiung branch diagnosed cirrhosis of the liver and informed Chia-yun's parents that her only prospects of survival rested on a liver transplant.

Although only a small piece removed from an adult liver would be required to save a baby, the Lins failed to find a suitable donor from among Chia-yiun's third degree relatives (those extending to her aunts and uncles, though not by marriage).

According to Lin Sien-jung (林憲榮), Chia-yiun's father, apart from her aunt by marriage, all of her relatives suffer from hepatitis -- a disease of the liver, anaemia -- a patient of which would be endangered by surgery, or incompatible blood types.

Under the Organ Donation Regulation, however, the aunt, a relative by marriage, is not qualified to donate organs to Chia-yiun.

"We pleaded with the Department of Health to let the hospital proceed with the transplant by making an exception of Chia-yiun. But the department not only rejected our plea but chided the hospital for urging the patients' family to do such a thing," said Lin.

Growing worse

Chia-yi's condition has been deteriorating since February this year as the varices -- blood vessels enlarged by the excessive amounts of blood passing through them because of her condition -- in her esophagus, a serious complication of cirrhosis that causes the little girl to cough up and excrete blood.

"Life is priceless. I do not know where the government has placed the right to life by setting up such stringent rules for live organ donations when there are precious few brain-death donations each year," said Lin.

Brain death is the irreversible loss of all functions of the brain. It is the legal definition of death in Taiwan and in many other countries.

Hundreds wait, few are lucky

Together with Chia-yiun, over a hundred patients await liver transplants at CGM hospital in Kaohsiung. But their chances are slim. Last year produced only three deceased donors.

"If the government can promote a lottery so successfully that the whole nation goes crazy about it, I wonder why it can't put the same effort into promoting organ donations," the father added.

While at least 6,000 people nationwide await organ transplants, less than a hundred donors -- both living and deceased -- have given organs in each of the past four years, according to the Organ Procurement Association (OPA, 中華民國器官捐贈協會).

"The situation has gone from bad to worse. From the second half of last year to April of this year, there were less than 10 organ donors in Taiwan and our hospital only received one," Cheng Long-bing (鄭隆彬), head of the CKMH organ transplant committee, and the president of OPA, told the Taipei Times.

Taiwan has 65 prospective donees for every single organ donation, compared to a US ratio of three to one.

Less head injuries

Cheng said that 80 percent of the patients waiting for liver transplants at CKMH a month ago had since passed away.