Legal Rights in Human Bodies, Body Parts and Tissue |
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Authors: | Loane Skene |
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Institution: | (1) Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia |
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Abstract: | This paper outlines the current common law principles that protect people’s interests in their bodies, excised body parts
and tissue without conferring the rights of full legal ownership. It does not include the recent statutory amendments in jurisdictions
such as New South Wales and the United Kingdom. It argues that at common law, people do not own their own bodies or excised
bodily material. People can authorise the removal of their bodily material and its use, either during life or after their
death, for medical or scientific purposes. Researchers who acquire human bodies, body parts or tissue pursuant to such an
authority have a right to possess and use them according to the authorisation they have been given, but their rights fall
short of full ownership because they are limited in the way that they can use the material. The legal rights of researchers
who develop intellectual property and biological products from excised human tissue can be adequately protected by existing
common law principles without the need for a new legal principle that people own body parts and tissue removed from their
bodies.
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Keywords: | Ownership Tissues Jurisprudence Biomedical research Humans |
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