In Taiwan, family members of organ donors often face ongoing mental health challenges, worried about their loved ones' afterlife. Paper Organs is a purpose-built care initiative for this specific group – the family members of organ donors. The goal is to enhance their mental well-being and create a positive impact. We successfully encourage individuals to voluntarily join the Organ Donor’s Family Care Program, becoming advocates for organ donation. This proactive engagement has led to a 42% increase in participants within three months.

Taiwan Organ Sharing Registry & Patient Autonomy Promotion Center, a registered foundation, is the sole official organization in Taiwan responsible for organ donation. One of its primary tasks is fostering relationships between hospitals, donors, and donor’s families. In the current process, organ donation requires final approval from family members, often leading to significant psychological trauma. 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. These initiatives aim to help donor’s families overcome the grief of losing a loved one and ease the pain associated with the decision to consent to organ donation.

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.

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, approaching realistic sizes. Hospitals then provide these Paper Organs to living relatives, enabling them to burn Paper Organs for the donors. This process helps alleviate their self-blame regarding the incomplete body of the donor.

We use cultural customs to eliminate the pain caused by cultural customs. Utilizing the tradition of ‘Joss Paper Burning’, we create Paper Organs to break ‘body must remain intact’ taboo. This genuinely soothes the grieving feelings of the donor's family, aiding many relatives who find themselves in profound pain to break free from such thought patterns.

After the launch of 'Paper Organs,' it successfully enlisted the participation of 11 organ donation-executing hospitals to join the Paper Organs program. Commencing mass production in 2023, Paper Organs became a gratitude gift presented by Taiwan Organ Sharing Registry & Patient Autonomy Promotion Center to donor’s families. Families of organ donors from these 11 hospitals, regardless of the past or future, can apply for Paper Organs. In collaboration with Taiwan's largest hospital, National Taiwan University Hospital, we organize Paper Organs Art Exhibition. The exhibition featured the five most representative donated organs: heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and corneas. Spanning a month and a half, the exhibition invited families of organ donors and successfully garnered attention from the medical community and the public.

After the introduction of Paper Organs, Taiwan Organ Sharing Registry & Patient Autonomy Promotion Center received numerous messages of gratitude from the families of donors. This project has inspired countless family members of donors to overcome the guilt associated with signing the organ donation consent form.

- a total of 332 sets of paper organs were distributed within six months. This includes 42 hearts, 15 lungs, 113 kidneys, 69 livers, and 93 corneas. (The annual average for organ donations in Taiwan over the past five years is 859)

- Collaboration with 11 organ donation-executing hospitals was established, joining the Paper Organs organ donation promotion program.

- Participants in the donor family care program increased by 42% within three months after the release.

- Following the release of Paper Organs, positive discussions about "organ donation" on social media increased by 411%, compared to the annual average.