Paper Organs is the first innovative healthcare product that utilizes insights from local culture to improve the mental well-being of organ donor families. It creates a complete journey of comfort for these families after they have made the decision to consent to donation, soothing their feelings of guilt and regret.

By leveraging the tradition of 'Joss Paper Burning', this approach genuinely comforts the grieving families of donors, reducing donor family counseling by 12% in six months after launch.

Similar to the Egyptians preserving organs in jars for eternal life, many Taiwanese strongly adhere to the traditional Chinese culture that having a complete body is essential for reaching heaven. The concept of 'body must remain intact' has repeatedly subjected donor’s families to self-criticism.

There's a real story about a wife who agreed to her husband's wish for organ donation and faced disapproval from her mother-in-law and relatives, hearing comments like 'You don't love my son enough!’, 'How could you be so ruthless!', and 'He's missing a heart because of you; now he can't go to heaven!' This caused immense psychological torment for the wife, leading to multiple suicide attempts.

The long-term goal of Taiwan Organ Sharing Registry & Patient Autonomy Promotion Center in executing the 'Organ Donor's Family Care Program' is to alleviate the psychological burden on families in such situations.

Taiwan Organ Sharing Registry & Patient Autonomy Promotion Center, a registered foundation, is the sole official organization in Taiwan responsible for organ donation. In the current process, organ donation requires final approval from family members, often leading to significant psychological trauma, with statistics showing that 56% of family members of organ donors experience mental health issues.

Consequently, the center has been implementing the 'Organ Donor's Family Care Program' for many years. This program includes regular gatherings, music events, hosting support groups, and providing psychological counseling.

However, despite these efforts, the psychological trauma experienced by family members has not been fully addressed, leading many to overlook or unwillingly participate in the program.

Paper Organs aims to break the traditional organ donation taboo of 'body must remain intact' in Taiwan and serves as a comforting gesture for donor's families. Utilizing the traditional funeral custom called 'Joss Paper Burning'. Taiwanese believe that burning paper replicas can provide the same items to loved ones in the afterlife. Therefore, we craft various paper organs using traditional paper artistry.

We helped our client in negotiating collaborations with 11 organ transplant hospitals. And persuaded hospitals to allocate budgets from their Donor’s Family Care Programs to produce and distribute paper organs to the donor's family. Innovating within the realm of funeral customs, family members present Paper Organs to the deceased, offering prayers to the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha (地藏王菩薩). After the ceremony, the Paper Organs are burned, completing the donor's body. This process helps alleviate donor family’s self-blame regarding the incomplete body of the donor.

[Design of the product]

The final design of Paper Organs draws inspiration from traditional Taiwanese funeral culture, specifically paper offerings. Collaborating with Taiwanese artist Chen Wen-tai, traditional paper art techniques are employed to craft organs such as heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, corneas, and more. We created prototypes in different styles and ultimately chose a design that combines paper sculpture art with a minimalist white aesthetic. This design was selected because it best represents the recognizable style of paper offerings in Taiwan.

[How to use]

Hospitals will provide Paper Organs to the families of donors, allowing them to use it during the funeral ceremony. Paper Organs is not just a physical product; it's an exclusive experience tailored for organ donor families. They will use Paper Organs for worship during the funeral, along with the coffin or Joss Paper, transforming the previously unrecognized organ donor funeral into a blessed final ceremony.

- 332 sets of paper organs were distributed within six months. This includes 42 hearts, 15 lungs, 113 kidneys, 69 livers, and 93 corneas. (Annual number of organ donors in Taiwan in 2023: 416 )

- Partnered with local funeral goods stores and the largest e-commerce platform, Pinkoi, to further ensure accessibility for organ donors families in need.

- 56% of family members experienced psychological issues in the past. We decrease the proportion of seeking counseling rate by 12%. 76% found comfort in their grief from interviews.

-Participants in the Family Care Program increased by 42%.

-The annual organ donation consent signing rate increased by 28%, the highest in the past five years, with over 3,400 forms collected.

-Positive discussions about "organ donation" on social media increased by 411%.