This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Faculty of Law, University of Kragujevac , Kragujevac , Serbia
Faculty of Law, University of Kragujevac , Kragujevac , Serbia
Human organ donation is an act of humanity and mercy, an expression of solidarity with the person in need of an organ and his family and, therefore, represents socially desirable and notably acceptable individual action. A living donor transplant is based on the principle of voluntarism and the protection of the individual person's autonomy, his right to physical and mental integrity, dignity and health are the imperatives that have to be respected in a transplant procedure. Hence, in case when an organ donor is a minor, who, by rule, lacks legal capacity to give an informed consent, there is a question who will on his behalf perform this humane act and allow the removal of an organ from the minor's body for transplantation purposes – particularly when knowing that this procedure is not medically indicated and is not aimed at the improvement or maintenance of the organ donor's health, but rather may cause him long term risks and problems, while all the benefits will go in favor of the organ recipient. The subject of this paper is to analyze how European national and supranational legislations regulate the matter of a minor living organ donor and, where this practice is permitted, to review the conditions for its perfomance. The goal of the paper is to analyze the transplant conditions as the measures for the special protection of a minor donor and determine whether there is a balance between the protection of the rights and interests of children and the protection of public interest and social solidarity, as a manifestation of the public interest. This analysis should provide an answer to the question whether it is acceptable from legal and ethical aspects to have a minor person for an organ donor and how this matter should be further regulated and developed
organ transplantation, a minor organ donor, informed consent, legal protection of minor's rights and interests
The statements, opinions and data contained in the journal are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). We stay neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
