Regulation of transplantation of human organs and/or tissues

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and identify the present status of the legal concept of consent worldwide and, particularly, in the Republic of Armenia. Currently, there are a few surgeries of transplantation of human organs or tissues in the RA. This field is not developed yet both in medicine and in the legal systems. There are many uncertainties in the legal regulation of transplantation of human organs and tissues. The first part of this work examines the legal characteristics of consent and states its types. There are several types of consent across the world and each country adopted one of them according to the legal system in that country. The thesis also described different mechanisms of consent and compared their features. Speaking about the role of the consent in transplantation, there is a need to understand what the object of the surgery is. The object has its “owner’, which is analyzed in the third part of this work. The last chapter gives the picture of the mentioned problem in the RA and offers the possible solutions before and after changes in the legal regulation of the transplantation in the RA. Especially, after amendments in 2009 the whole system was changed. Because of that current regulation has contradictions with Constitution and, in general, with the legal system of RA. The main notion of consent in transplantation has changed. To conclude, this work considered various models of consent and drawing parallels between Armenian legal framework and international practice. As a result of the research we think that there is a need of significant changes in the law and Armenian approach of the transplantation regulation.