[Civil and criminal laws regarding the donation, removal and transfer of organs (Transplantation Law) in Germany with respect to administrative and clinical autopsies].

In the Federal Republic of Germany, transplantation medicine, which is relatively young and still developing, is now regulated by the law governing the donation, removal and transfer of organs (Transplantation Law--TPG) of 05. 11. 1997 and has been given a legal basis which satisfies even present-day standards. By evaluating the highly personal rights to potential organ donor and of his next-of-kin against the interests of maintaining life and health of others, the law works along the lines of the so-called extended consent solution. The basic civil law stipulations of sections 3 + 4 TPG, while protecting the donor's individual freedom of decision, give his next-of-kin or trusted confidant at or immediately following death the right to communicate his presumes wishes. In addition, it must be stated that through recent decisions handed down by the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) in response to various complaints, this regulation has been recognised as conforming to constitutional laws. The basic content of the penal regulations states that violations of civil law rules and trafficking in organs are an offence. Current disclosed requirements for suitable donor organs, in particular for 1998, make it appear likely that the current deficit can be eliminated by the introduction of the organisational measures contained in the law. In conclusion, the situation with regard to autopsy should be addressed since, in contrast to the federal transplantation law which applies to all states, autopsy is regulated differently and, from a legal-political standpoint, unsatisfactorily by each individual state. It is desirable that this legal ambiguity be corrected by standardising the inconsistent and at times non-existent legal stipulations.