DONOR ORGAN AS AN OBJECT OF CIVIL LEGAL RELATIONSHIPS

Abstract

The right to transplantation belongs to personal non-property rights that ensure natural existence of a natural person. There is no concept of a donor organ among the objects of civil rights listed in the Civil Code of Ukraine. A donor organ can be considered as a personal nonproperty object and as a materialized object in case of separation of a certain organ or anatomical material from the human body. Anatomical materials, organs, cells have the specific function to satisfy a human need for health care and the exercise of the right to life, that is, the protection of personal non-property rights that ensure natural existence of a person. They are the objects of civil legal relationships with a specific personal appointment and cannot be the subject of free civil circulation. For this reason, we cannot totally agree with the identification of the legal regime of a thing with a donor organ in the form of an organ (or its part), other anatomical material, cells, etc. Anatomical organs separated from the human body and intended for transplantation have a materialized form. Their proprietary nature is substantiated by this fact. However, at the same time, the appointment of these objects, that are used not in general to satisfy material needs, but for the realization of personal non-property rights related to the natural existence of a person as a participant in civil legal relationships, remains unresolved. As a result of medical intervention based on the consent of the donor and the recipient, the personal non-property right of a natural person transformers into an independent object of a civil right. Chapter 15 of the Civil Code of Ukraine should be supplemented with an article “Donor Organs (Anatomical and Biological Materials and Cells)” of the following content: “Donor organ is considered as anatomical materials (parts of them), tissues, anatomical formations, human cells, human fetal materials, other biological products suitable for transplantation based on the consent of the donor and the recipient in accordance with the procedure established by law”.