Organ Transplantation and the Right to Body Disposal
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This article begins with a few preliminary terminological explanations which the author believes to be necessary: a) the distinction between transfusions and transplants, which are usually included in the same category by moralists and jurists; b) the difference between transplants of organs, tissues, and members. The author then proceeds to study the right over one's own body, with the understanding that the well-known formula homo non est dominus membrorum suorum must be interpreted juridically as the inexistence of any absolute right of disposition over one's own body. The contents and limits of the right over one's own body are regulated by three principles: the indirect voluntary (double effect) principle, the principle of totality, and the moderata castigatio corporis. With regard to transfusions, the author points out the requirements of liceity on the part of donor and recipient, and draws particular attention upon the subject of conscientious objectors (i.e., Jehovah's Witnesses). In relation to transplants, the author studies those which have been performed directly between humans, with special attention given to those between two living persons. The liceity of this last case -apart from other requirements which are expounded upon in detail- rests upon the following conditions: a) that the finality of the donation be an act of human solidarity; b) that the donor not become gravely jeopardized as a result. With regard to transplants between a deceased donor and a live recipient, the author insists upon the need to respect the cadaver and to secure due authorization. The author also studies, with special care, border-line cases in which the donor may find himself: hopeless, clinically dead, artificially alive, recuperable.
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