The Criminal Law Aspects of Organ Transplants

Abstract

Achievements of the scientific and technological revolution have made it possible for medical practitioners to master the surgical procedure of human organ transplants. This new direction in science opens up major new perspectives in medicine for treating many diseases and increasing human life expectancy. However, through surgical techniques alone, medicine has been unable to overcome the principal reason behind negative results of organ transplants-the barrier posed by the biological incompatibilty of tissues. Nonetheless, the accomplishments in this area have been considerable. Successes in transplantology are confronting the scientific world with a multitude of questions, the most important of which are not just medical but legal as well. The basic task of law is to integrally combine the successes of transplantology with the advantages of the Soviet health-care system."The common goal of these legal decrees is to place the achievements of modern medical science in the service of the suffering and to restore their health and ability to work within the framework of the given potential," state GDR jurists H. Hinderer and U. Lehmann. Considering that certain abuses are possible in this sphere of medical activity, society must have reliable safeguards to secure the constitutional right of Soviet man to life and health protection and to inviolability of his person. Criminal law occupies a special place in the regulation of organ transplants.