Directed and Conditional Deceased Donor Organ Donations: Laws and Misconceptions

∗ MRC Centre for Transplantation, King’s College London, and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College, London. † School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University, Belfast. We would like to acknowledge that Dr. Antonia J Cronin’s PhD at the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, School of Law, University of Manchester was funded by the Wellcome Trust. We would also like to thank Anne-Maree Farrell, David Price, and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. 1 The Human Tissue Act 2004 (the 2004 Act) is now the primary legislation regulating transplantation in those countries. The Act does not apply in Scotland (save for s 45, prohibiting the taking and analysis of DNA samples without consent). Separate legislation applies in Scotland; see the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006. The 2004 Act repeals and replaces the Human Tissue Act 1961, the Anatomy Act 1984 and the Human Organ Transplant Act 1989. The authorisation of activities for scheduled purposes is outlined in s 1 of the 2004 Act. It covers seven scheduled purposes requiring general consent, one of which is transplantation. Scheduled purposes requiring general consent are outlined in Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Act ,http:// www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/40030--e.htm#sch1.. Medical Law Review, 18, Autumn 2010, pp. 275–301 doi:10.1093/medlaw/fwq019