Legal and ethical issues in human organ transplantation

The Indian Law on Human Organ and Tissue transplantation protects the interests and preserves the lives of both the donor as well as the recipient patient. An issue arises as to the relationship of others with one's body or parts thereof especially one's cadaver. The posessory rights of the cadaver, property rights in the human corpse will be discussed in this paper. The ethical issues involved in altruism give rise to number of contradictions on which this paper focuses. The removal of organs would constitute an "injury" in ethical and legal terms if the intended use of an organ or tissue is not legally and ethically acceptable. How one determines the existence of the 'injury' in this context, where application of the concept of non-malfeasance is itself a good defense, is discussed in the paper. Consent in case of a cadaver has always been a matter of debate. The application of the doctrine of consent will be referred to in the course of this article.