Keywords
Consent law, Presumed consent law, Organ and tissue donation, Organ and tissue harvesting, Organ transplantation, family rights, individual rights, privacy, autonomy, liberty
Abstract
This Note examines, in three parts, presumed consent laws as they pertain to organ donation. Part I discusses presumed consent and explains the salient features of presumed consent laws. It then discusses case law that addresses the aftermath of unauthorized organ or tissue harvesting. Part II evaluates the United States Supreme Court's evolving conceptions of the rights of individual and family-based privacy, autonomy, and liberty, for subsequent application to the presumed consent organ donation controversy. Part III analyzes presumed consent laws in light of the donors and their families' privacy, autonomy, and liberty interests. The Note concludes that current presumed consent organ donation laws in the United States are both unethical and unconstitutional.
Recommended Citation
Maryellen Liddy,
THE “NEW BODY SNATCHERS”: ANALYZING THE EFFECT OF PRESUMED CONSENT ORGAN DONATION LAWS ON PRIVACY, AUTONOMY, AND LIBERTY,
28 Fordham Urb. L.J. 815
(2001).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol28/iss3/4