Donation and removal of organs, tissues or human cells from the deceased persons

• Author: Roxana Matefi
• Position: Ph. D. Lecturer Matefi Roxana
• Pages: 46-49

AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/aijjs

ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677

No. 4 (2015), pp. 46-49

46

DONATION AND REMOVAL OF ORGANS, TISSUES OR

HUMAN CELLS FROM THE DECEASED PERSONS

R. Matefi

Ph. D. Lecturer MATEFI ROXANA

Abstract: This paper proposes an approach to a subject with profound implications,

generating a lot of controversy, the donation and removal of organs, tissues and human cells

from the deceased persons. There will be analyzed the legal conditions required to be met

according to the law for this process to be feasible, not forgetting of that exposure the possible

criminal consequences that failure of these conditions could attract.

Key words: donation, removal, deceased person, organ, tissue, human cell, consent.

I. Introduction

Death and the legal consequences that it generates has been the subject of

numerous doctrinal analysis, likely to reveal the peculiarities of this phenomenon.

“The universal experience of human death generates responses in every

medium of individual, social and cultural expression. Laws based on religious or moral

principles reflect this conditioning in their approaches to death (…) less attention is paid to

the inherent qualities or rights of people than to their property; people are a means by which

property is owned, possessed, protected and transferred. Death is considered a legal status.

The time of a person’s death marks the point at which other legal events occur, such as the

inheritance of an estate by survivors or the process of distribution of an estate, a body may

(and in a relatively short time must) be buried, cremated or otherwise disposed of in

accordance with law (…) it also marks the point under modern legislation at which organs

may be recovered for posthumous transplantation. The legal status of death arises when the

legal criteria of death are satisfied. The criteria are based on observations that medically

qualified persons have the capacity to make, although in many circumstances lay persons

could apply the criteria too. Classically, the criteria of death were the cessation of respiration

and blood circulation

1

”.

As for the aspects regarding the inviolability of a person, doctrine makes a clear

distinction between a living person and a deceased one, by stating that “even if it is still

impregnated with the personality of the person it used to be, a corpse is merely a thing. This

does not mean that a corpse does not require special protection. But the notion of inviolability

does not have the same meaning whether we are discussing a living person or a deceased

person

2

”.

As regards the content of the process of donating vital organs after death “donation of

skin, bone, cornea, as well as total body donation for research and teaching. The term is more

often used in the context of organ transplantation where large solid organs can be transplanted

1

Bernard M. Dickens, Legal and judicial aspects of post mortem organ donation in Procurement, Preservation

and Allocation of Vascularized Organs, Springer Link, p. 343, 344.

2

T. Prescure, R. Matefi, Civil law. Gen eral Part, Hamangiu Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, p. 307, authors

who quote O. Ungureanu, C. Munteanu, Civil law. The person in the regulation of the new Civil Code,

Hamangiu Publishing House, Bucharest, 2012, p. 23.