Regulating human body parts and products

This special volume of Health Care Analysis is dedicated to a consideration of the status of body parts and products and the role of law in regulating them. We argue that such a discussion is timely given the conflation of technological and academic concerns posed by the complex legal framework within which these issues are currently addressed and in the light of debates such as those regarding the storage of children's organs addressed by inquiries at Alder Hay and Bristol, United Kingdom. The contributors address specific legal problems which have been brought before the courts in the UK and other jurisdictions, something which we suggest is likely to occur with increasing regularity once the Human Rights Act 1998 comes into force in October 2000. The issues are also considered on a more theoretical level with papers exploring the role of concepts such as property, donation, commodification and kinship in these debates. While the volume focuses principally upon the manner in which these issues have arisen in a UK context, though with reference to certain comparative examples, the concepts discussed here are of more general application across other jurisdictions.