ETHICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF ORGAN HARVESTING FROM DECEASED MINORS

Organ transplantation, as an extremely demanding, but impоrtant medical intervention, has always provided significant scope for opposing different legal and ethical principles. That scope is being expanded by considering the possibility that a sensitive category of persons, such as minors, may appear in the role of donor. While transplantation of organs from living minors is prohibited for the above reasons, cadaveric transplantation of organs from deceased children is legal in the law of the Republic of Serbia. This paper analyzes precisely such legally regulated organ donation, which implies the possibility of the appearance of a deceased minor as a donor. While, on the one hand, there is a growing need to take organs from children in order to transplant them and preserve the life of another child of appropriate age, such a decision has a significant emotional impact, above all, on the parents of the child. Keeping in mind that parents appear as the only authorized holders of the right to decide on the transplantation of an organ of a deceased minor, it is necessary to analyze the legal nature of the rights they have on the body and organs of the child. Also, it is necessary to point out the importance of more precise legal regulation of the conditions under which such transplantation can be performed, as well as the necessity of ensuring the autonomy of the will of the minor in terms of organ donation, which he could achieve for life.Publishe