Research On Several Issues Concerning Criminal Law Regulations On Crimes Related To Organ Transplantation

Topic of this paper is selected based on some thoughts of the author in learning and working experiences. With continuous development of medical technology in recent years, crimes related to organ transplantation emerged, which have unique characteristics. From the perspective of historical background and medical concepts, a systematic overview about organ transplantation is put forward in this paper, which lays a foundation for subsequent discussion. Through research method based on comparison, current situations of legislation in Anglo-American legal system and civil law system are expounded and differences between them are summarized. Such differences include that all laws and regulations related to organ transplantation are included in one act through uniform legislation frequently adopted in AngloAmerican legal system; however, there are two forms of legislation in civil law system, including separate legislation represented by France, in which crimes related to organ transplantation are separately listed in criminal law, and mixed legislation represented by Germany. As for relevant legislation in China, introduction to Regulations on Donation, Harvest and Transplantation of Human Organs adopted by Macao Special Administrative Region is focused, and the law has characteristics in four aspects, which has positive significance for construction of legislation in the field of organ transplantation in China. This paper comprises of four sections as for structure. Firstly, explanation on human organs is made from the perspectives of medical connotation and legal attributes, and an overall overview of organ transplantation is provided. Secondly, a comparison of current situations of legislation on organ transplantation in civil law system, Anglo-American legal system and China is conducted, and advantages of legislation in Macao Special Administrative Region and dilemma in legislation of China are compared to each other. Thirdly, crimes related to organ transplantation are analyzed and their characteristics are summarized. Finally, as the focused section of discussion, shortcomings in laws and regulations in China on crimes related to organ transplantation at the current stage are discussed, including six issues, namely whether brain death should be deemed as the criterion for determination of death in the field of legislation, scope of subject of crimes related to organ transplantation, improvement of organ donation system for prisoners under death penalty, whether cornea should be included in scope of human organs, whether protection by legislation should be provided to mental health patients and reasonable utilization of organs from dead bodies. As for improvement of organ donation system for prisoners under death penalty, this is always a politically sensitive issue. As a former student in Department of Forensic Medicine, the author pays more attention to this issue and has more conceptions about it. As a special group of people, prisoners under death penalty should be protected by legislation on organ transplantation. In this section, based on laws and regulations in foreign countries and the current situation of legislation in China, some conceptions are put forward for the purpose of protecting their body right. Main purpose of research in this paper is improvement in legislation on organ transplantation. With rapid development of medicine today, laws and regulations should be gradually improved for the purpose of ensuring fairness among lives.