ABSTRACT
We have already seen how the donation and transplantation of human organs developed in England, the response of the common law to various ‘scandals’ which treated body parts as commodities for commercial exploitation, and it was noted then that several countries have responded to this phenomenon by enacting legislation. It is estimated that, annually, 300,000 people receive organ transplants worldwide (Williams (1994)); nevertheless, there remains a shortage of organs for the number of people in need, and this shortage remains the main obstacle to the further development of techniques of organ transplants.
