ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on the post-mortem component. He questions whether the dilemma of maintaining a brain-dead pregnant woman on life-support for the sake of her fetus is covered, and therefore could be resolved by the law governing other medical procedures performed on the newly-dead patients, especially procedures undertaken for altruistic reasons. One such procedure is maintaining the 'newly-dead' on life-support for the extraction of organs, for transplantation. The author refers to such a procedure as it is usually referred to, namely as a post-mortem gift. Human Tissue Gift acts are the legal mechanism designed to regulate the use of cadavers for therapeutic purposes, medical education or scientific research and to determine the conditions under which they can be used. Human Tissue Gift Acts exist widely in Canada. In the United States, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act expressly grants the right to the next-of-kin to control disposal of the body, in conformity with the common law.
