Cadaveric transplantation-the legal and ethical issues

Using parts of a cadaver to treat the living has been a topic of interest amongst emerging medical professionals to treat irreversible organ damage. Transplantation is an approach where living tissues or organs are taken from their original site or donor site and placed surgically at a new specified site or recipient site for the benefit of the recipient.¹ It is of three types which are autograft, allograft and xenograft. The recipient is the one who is the victim of end stage organ failure and the donor is the one who either be living or dead, who will provide the organ. Since this procedure has been introduced for treatment, there was a lot of demand to procure organs with limited supply, which in turn gave stimulus to research the cadaveric transplantation. Hence, there have been studies and research being done to meet the demand and reduce complications as this procedure is a boon to patients suffering from end stage organ failure. There are complications with the procedure which include graft rejection and ischemia-reperfusion injury. This article focuses on legal procedure for procurement of organs after a person has been declared brain dead or cardiac dead by THOTA in India and various Ethical issues related to consent, myths, religious reasons and notions related with cadaveric transplantation have been discussed.