On the Principle of Voluntary Consent to Organ Donation in the Legal Acts of the Russian Federation and International Law

Abstract

The development of transplantation in the Russian Federation raised in addition to ethical some legal issues, like the conflict of the Law of the Russian Federation “On transplantation of human organs and tissues” and the Federal Law “On burial and funeral business”. Goals and tasks of the research. The main goal of the study is to determine the content of the principle of presumed consent and its legal boundaries. This goal led to the setting of the following tasks: firstly, on the basis of international and national law, to establish the donation procedure, and, secondly, to analyze the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the European Court of Human Rights on the legality of the principle of presumed consent. Methods. For the study, both general scientific methods like analysis, synthesis, deduction and induction were used, as well as private scientific methods, the main role played the comparative legal method. Guided by it, the author compared the approaches to the legal regulation of donation in various legislative acts of the Russian Federation and international law. Comparative analysis was used to study the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the ECHR case law. Brief conclusion. The author reveals two models of legal regulation of donation – presumed and requested consent. After studying the Law of the Russian Federation “On transplantation of human organs and tissues” and the Federal Law “On the basics of health protection of citizens in the Russian Federation”, the author suggests ways of improving the national legislation on posthumous donation.