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CONSELHO NACIONAL DE ÉTICA PARA AS CIÊNCIAS DA VIDA R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 3
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CONSELHO NACIONAL DE ÉTICA PARA AS CIÊNCIAS DA VIDA
REPORT 24/CNECV/98 BY JOAQUIM PINTO MACHADO ON THE
DRAFT DECREE-LAW AIMING TO SET THE JURIDICAL REGIME OF THE LAWFUL DISSECTION OF CADAVERS AND OF THE EXTRACTION OF PARTS, TISSUES OR ORGANS FOR THE PURPOSES OF TEACHING AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
I INTRODUCTION
1. His Excellency the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice, on the 2nd of February of 1998, forwarded to the President of the National Council of Ethics for the Life Sciences (CNECV), together with a formal request for an Opinion by the Council within 30 days, a “Draft Decree-Law aiming to set the juridical regime of the lawful dissection of cadavers and of the extraction of parts, tissues or organs for the purposes of teaching and scientific research”. In a meeting held the following day, the CNECV decided to appoint me to present a report that should serve as basis for the elaboration of the Opinion requested. 2. The issue under appraisal is not unknown to the CNECV, for on its own initiative, on the 4th of December, 1991, it published an “Opinion on the Utilisation of Human Cadavers for Purposes of Teaching Medicine and the Necessity, Pertinence and th Legitimacy thereof (2/CNE/92)”, followed by an Addendum dated the 5 of February, 1992.1 th
On the 28 of March, 1994, since there was up to that date no knowledge of any legislative initiative in this regard, the CNECV President forwarded an official letter to His Excellency the President of Parliament and to His Excellency the nd Prime Minister, which declares that “The Council, in a plenary meeting on the 2 of March current, deliberated it should analyse the issue, pursuant to the competence accorded to it by Art. 2 - 1 – a) of Law 14/90 of the 9th of June, and, within the scope of that analysis, recommend that the instituted legislative organs urgently issue legislation on the matter at hand.”
1
Conselho Nacional de Ética para as Ciências da Vida: Documentação – Vol. I (1991-1993) pp. 6772. Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional - Casa da Moeda. (An English translation exists.) R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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CONSELHO NACIONAL DE ÉTICA PARA AS CIÊNCIAS DA VIDA
On the 9th of May, 1994, His Excellency the Minister of Health forwarded to the CNECV President, for an Opinion by the Council, a “Draft Bill aiming to regulate those situations in which it is lawful to dissect human cadavers or parts thereof, following cardio-respiratory death, as well as the extraction of parts, tissues and organs, for the purposes of teaching and scientific research”. The official letter enclosed states that the document was elaborated “subsequent to the recommendation by the National Council of Ethics concerning the utilisation of human cadavers, for the purposes of teaching medicine (...)”. Pursuant to this request, Opinion 8/CNE/94, of the 13th of July was elaborated, based on a Report I produced.2 The submission of the said Draft Bill led to the Parliament’s Health Commission promoting a Parliamentary Conference on the “Ethical and Legal Questions relating to the utilisation of cadavers for the purposes of teaching and research”, held on the 28th of June, 1994, at the Senate Hall of São Bento Palace.3 Unfortunately, that Draft Bill never passed into the Agenda. With the present Government already in office, the CNECV, by an official letter dated the 20th of November, 1995, brought the matter to the consideration of His Excellency the Prime Minister – who, through a letter by the Head of his Office, dated the 15th of December, informed that the Council’s exposition had been communicated to the Ministries of Science and Technology, of Education and of Health. On the 5th of December, 1996, in response to a request from His Excellency the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice, through his Head of Office, the Council forwarded to him Opinion 8/CNE/94 and the text of the Draft Bill to which it refers. On the 13th of October, 1997, having received no further news, the CNECV President wrote an official letter to His Excellency, letting him know the Council’s concern and requesting whatever information he deemed convenient. 3. The above exposition clearly demonstrates the persistent commitment by the CNECV to bring about legislation that might promote and regulate the utilisation of human cadavers or parts thereof for the purposes of medical training and scientific research.
2
3
Conselho Nacional de Ética para as Ciências da Vida: Documentação, Vol. II (1993-1994), pp. 147-149. Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda. (An English translation exists.) JHN.: São Bento Palace is the House of Parliament. R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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II ETHICAL REFLECTION ON THE DRAFT DECREE-LAW
I consider that, in the elaboration of the Opinion now requested, what has been expounded in Opinions 2/CNE/92 and 8/CNE /94 must be taken into account. From an ethical point of view, there is an essential divergence between the Draft Decree-Law and what is defended in those two Opinions as to the necessary requirements permitting the dissection of cadavers for the purposes stipulated. According to the CNECV Opinions referred, the utilisation of cadavers in teaching and research requires that the deceased should have manifested his/her conscious consent, recognising no one’s right to revoke that decision after the donor’s death. Only in the case of cadavers not claimed is it legitimate, ipso facto, to utilise them for the purposes stipulated, except if, in life, there was statutory manifestation by the deceased to the contrary. According to the Draft Decree-Law, the decision falls to whoever is recognised to have the legal right to claim the body, though the decision that may never run counter to an eventual declaration by the deceased opposing the utilisation of his/her corpse. In other words: As the CNECV understands it, the utilisation of the cadaver for teaching and research must be an expression of the person’s social solidarity, manifested clearly, knowingly and freely; the obstruction of that desire is not permissible, for no one owns any corpse whatsoever. As the Draft Decree-Law understands it, the protagonist in decision-making is whoever has a legitimate claim on the body, so long as “the [deceased] person has not manifested in life to the Ministry of Health his/her opposition (subparagraph 1.a of Art. 3) as per Art. 5, § 1, which must be on file in the National Registry of Non-Donors (Art.5, § 2).” I consider that the protagonism in decision-making, concerning the destination of the cadaver to teaching and research, must fall, by inherent right, to the person whose mortal remains it constitutes presently, and this for two reasons of different kind. On the one hand, what is at stake is deciding the destination of the cadaver of “his” or “her” own body: it is not ethical to recognise only the person’s right to refuse such utilisation and not the right to allow it, transferring that prerogative to other parties. On the other hand, it is highly desirable that the cadavers being dissected by Anatomy students should be there intentionally, by the will of those whose bodies they were once. In this regard, I reproduce below an excerpt of the closing sentences R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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of the text I presented at the above mentioned Parliamentary Conference, promoted th by the Parliament’s Health Commission and held on the 28 of June, 1994: “The encounter of Anatomy students – those in the first year of Medicine – with the human cadaver is, in the vast majority of cases, their first impact against the brutal reality of Death and, on the rebound, with the wonder of Life, with the meaning of Life. For, without a personal direction to guide it, drive it, comfort it and cheer it, Life is Non-Life: it is a burden tolerated or escaped from, alienating and selfdestructive. “If the Anatomy student knows the body he is going to dissect is there because it belonged to someone no one knows anything about, that it ended up there because it belonged to some outcast no one would take in, he will tend to see in that body nothing but a dead structure, a thing. “But if that body is there because the person to whom it belonged expressly wished it, for the benefit of those who, on becoming physicians, will dedicate their lives to the service of others, the situation is entirely different. “That cadaver on the table which he, the student, is going to dissect, is no longer a mere corpse, for the gesture that explains the encounter conveys and reveals the person the body was once, who now delivers itself to the concrete person of he, the student – offering itself trustingly, to be cut and disclosed to its very core. This trusting offer is like a whispered confession, telling the student that the person who the body once was is certain the young man or woman will “treat” it with respect, affection and competence, and will correspond to the magnificent gesture of donation by using the knowledge acquired to become an able physician in science and action, wise in thinking and behaviour, an attentive, compassionate and devoted physician. The human cadaver will be thus, at one and the same time, the First Patient and the First Teacher of the student of Medicine. “Does that sound lyrical? “Professors Sandra L. Bertman and Sandy C. Marks, Jr., from the USA, deeply committed for years to the utilisation of human cadavers for a Humanist education of medical students during their passage through Anatomy laboratories, have presented, in diverse publications, numerous examples that illustrate this. In one paper,4 they transcribe the testimony of a student, on the subject of the ‘most memorable recollection’ of his Anatomy course: ‘I have nearly concluded the dissection of the body of a 71-year old woman who died of lung cancer. Although it is disagreeable at times to separate, cut or extract cadaver parts, I do it willingly and without remorse or other sentiments that might disturb me. First of all, it is not the woman herself who is being dissected. It is 4
The dissection experience as a laboratory for self-discovery about death and dying: another side of clinical anatomy. in “Clinical Anatomy” no.2 (1989), pp. 103 – 113. R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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the body she occupied to sustain her earthly life. I am quite aware that things are not that simple. What overrides all my other thoughts and feelings about dissection is that the woman made me a gift. Of her own will, she allowed me to utilise the body she no longer uses so that I may obtain through it the knowledge which, I hope, will enable me to look after the living. She left a “gift of love” to those who are still living in this world. Her gift is very special: a gift to the living. For that, I respect and admire her.’ “ Here is, then, a last and inestimable use of the cadaver freely donated in life: educating attitudes. Let it be added that should it fall to the families to decide whether the cadavers may or may not be utilised for the purposes of teaching and research, that will not alleviate the scarcity which has prevailed for decades in teaching, here in Portugal: i.e. the law will be useless. Of course, enacting a law is not enough to achieve its objectives. The experience in other countries shows that campaigns to raise public awareness and support – persistent, well conceived and competently carried out campaigns, employing the art of teaching and good sense – are the fundamental means that permit achieving (even so, only in the medium run) the aimed for results (see Appendix). It is obvious that it would be in very poor taste to target such awareness on the relatives of the future dead (actually, all of us are one and the other)... Let me add that I know of no country with legislation in this matter that shares the point of view expressed in this Draft Decree-Law: the legislations I have knowledge of (those of Germany, USA, France, Israel, UK, Sweden), adopt in every case the primacy of the will of whosesoever cadaver will be utilised for study. I defend the same concerning Portuguese legislation. Should the CNECV, as I expect, share my point of view, its Opinion must propose the rewording of point 2 in the preamble to the Draft Decree-Law, of Art. 3, §1, and of Art.12, and also the elimination of Art. 5. Nevertheless, I consider that, when the deceased has not manifested in life, in statutory manner, any disposition to the contrary, the legitimacy of consent of whoever is legally entitled to claim the body should be admitted: doing so does not signify any acknowledgement of property but only an expression of solidarity in view of the social importance of the purpose at hand – it is, therefore, an ethical attitude.
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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SOME TECHNICAL POINTS Art. 3 The issue here is not “permitted acts” (those are dealt with in Art. 1, as referred in Art. 4, § 2, actually). The issue is which cadavers may be dissected. Art. 3, §1, b) The wording induces the interpretation that the cadaver in question has been abandoned, and that is not the case, as referred in the closing sentence of point 2 in the preamble. Art. 4, § 3 The 8-day time limit is much too short to allow the use of the fixation techniques indispensable to later dissection by Anatomy students: the time limit must not be less than one year (4 months for fixation and 8 months of use). Art. 8 , a) I suggest that the necessity of dactyloscopic, photographic or anthropomorphic identification of the subject be made explicit, so as to prevent doubts over the identity of the deceased. the 3rd of March, 1998
The Reporter,
Prof. Joaquim Pinto Machado
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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Opinion 24/CNECV/98 on the Draft Decree-Law aiming to set THE JURIDICAL REGIME OF THE LAWFUL DISSECTION OF CADAVERS FOR THE PURPOSES OF TEACHING AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH I INTRODUCTION 1. On the 2nd of February last, His Excellency the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice requested an Opinion of the National Council of Ethics for the Life Sciences (CNECV) on a “Draft Decree-Law aiming to set the juridical regime of the lawful dissection of cadavers and of the extraction of parts, tissues or organs, for the purposes of teaching and scientific research”. 2. The issue under appraisal is not unknown to the CNECV, which, already in 1991 and on its own initiative, published an Opinion (2/CNE/92) on the matter. Thereafter, it has intervened in the matter several times, be it by drawing the attention of Parliament and Government to the necessity of producing legislation, be it by the elaboration of an Opinion on a Draft Bill (8/CNE/94) in response to a request by the Minister of Health of the preceding Government. 3. Although pronouncements on technical issues lie outside its competence, the CNECV draws attention to the 8-day time limit (Art. 4, § 3), which would render useless what is set down in subparagraph 1. b) of Art. 3.
II OPINION
Considering its own documents 2/CNE/92 and 8/CNE/94, and the Report appended hereto on the Draft Decree-Law under appraisal, the National Council of Ethics for the Life (CNECV), keeping in mind the inherent dignity of the human body after death and the right to information provided for in the Law, emits the following Opinion: 1. The National Council of Ethics for the Life Sciences considers ethically unacceptable all that refers to the criteria used to legitimate the dissection of cadavers for the purposes stipulated (Art 3). The remaining text of the Draft does not, on the whole, raise objections from an ethical point of view.
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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CONSELHO NACIONAL DE ÉTICA PARA AS CIÊNCIAS DA VIDA
The Draft Decree-Law determines that the dissection of cadavers may be performed only if consent thereto is given by whoever is legally entitled to claim them (so long as the deceased did not manifest opposition to such practice while still alive). The CNECV maintains the stand already affirmed in the Opinions referred above, that the primacy of the right to affirmative (as well as negative) decision falls to the person concerned, who must express it freely and consciously. When it is affirmative, it expresses a high sense of solidarity. These observations are crucially important and convey the Council’s doctrine in this regard. Nevertheless, if the cadaver is not claimed by anyone legally entitled to do so, it is licit that the same cadaver should be used for dissection even in the absence of a statement of will, so long as there has been no declaration to the contrary. Further, there is no apparent impediment on ethical grounds – in view of the value accorded to solidarity, as mentioned – when the deceased, in life, has not manifested a contrary mind, to recognising the legal trustee of the corpse as legitimately entitled to consent to its utilisation for dissection. Indeed, those to whom the corpse is entrusted, even though they do not own it, are its curators, and to them falls the decision as to the final destination to be given to the body of the deceased, in the absence of the latter’s express will. Thus, the Council considers ethically unacceptable the non-recognition of the right of a person to decide that, once deceased, his/her corpse may be dissected for the purposes of teaching or scientific research, and that such right be attributed exclusively to whoever is legally entitled to claim the body for exequies. In fact, we cannot discern any ethical grounds to deny a person’s wanting to make his/her corpse available for elevated social ends, while – paradoxically! – recognising to others, be they spouse or children, the legitimacy to do so. This constitutes an ethically unacceptable transfer of powers, which, moreover, is not contemplated in any legislation in our knowledge. In view of the exposition above, the CNECV considers that the dissection of cadavers is licit in any one of the following situations: a) when the person, in life, has declared the wish that his/her body be used for the purposes of teaching medicine and scientific research; b) when the cadaver has not been legitimately claimed for exequies and in the absence of a declaration to the contrary; c) when, in the absence of a declaration either an affirmative or contrary by the deceased to such utilisation of the body, consent is given by whoever is legally entitled to claim the body for exequies.
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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2. The CNECV endorses the exposition in the appended Report on the importance of the utilisation of donated cadavers towards the education of students’ values and attitudes: this constitutes an additional ethical argument, whose importance should not be underestimated. Accordingly, the CNECV considers there should be a rewording, in harmony with this understanding it holds, of the last sentence of point 2 in the preamble to the Draft Decree-Law, and of the texts of Art. 3, §1, and Art. 12, with Art. 5 being struck out. 3. The CNECV recommends further that an Article be introduced establishing which Institutions are to be accredited to receive cadavers in terms of this Decree-Law, organising an adequate registry of the cadavers entered and the destination given to each. 4. It is suggested that the Decree-Law referred should contain a clause stating that its stipulations do not apply to anatomical-clinical autopsies performed for clinical diagnosis.
Lisbon, the 3rd of March, 1998
The President of the National Council of Ethics for the Life Sciences
Prof. Luís Archer
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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DECLARATION OF VOTE
I share the solidaristic and fraternal, moral and juridical concept of the human person, even of the deceased human person, which I believe to have read in Prof. Pinto Machado’s Report, but I do not hold with the underlying principle of the “surreptitious socialisation” of the body. Therefore, given the absence of a clear primacy of autonomy and of a real universalisation of the right to self-determination of the body, that is to say, given the absence of a positive demand for the expression of the subject’s animus donandi, I vote against Opinion 24/CNECV/98 on the Draft Decree-Law proposing to set the juridical regime of the lawful dissection of cadavers and of the extraction of parts, tissues or organs for the purposes of teaching and scientific research. Lisbon, the 3rd of March, 1998
Dr. M. Silvério Marques
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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REQUEST FOR AN OPINION ORDERED BY THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE ON THE
DRAFT DECREE-LAW AIMING TO SET THE JURIDICAL REGIME OF THE LAWFUL DISSECTION OF CADAVERS AND OF THE EXTRACTION OF PARTS, TISSUES OR ORGANS FOR THE PURPOSES OF TEACHING AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
[Cover Letter from the Office of the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice to the President of the National Council of Ethics for the Life Sciences, dated Lisbon, 98.02.02]
Re: Draft Decree-Law aiming to set the juridical regime of the lawful dissection of cadavers and of the extraction of parts, tissues or organs for the purposes of teaching and scientific research
His Excellency the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice has charged me with forwarding to you, for the purposes of an Opinion, the draft decree-law described ut supra. We'd be thankful to have said Opinion remitted to us within 30 days, so that the legislative process underway may continue in the shortest possible time.
Yours faithfully, for the Head of Staff (João Manuel Nabais), ss: José Carlos
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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[Preamble] 1. The chronic lack of cadavers in Portugal for the purposes of teaching and scientific research that has been felt for several decades constitutes a growing cause for concern, and it results from a near-absolute legislative void in this regard. It is unquestionable, however, that cadavers represent an element of the highest interest to advancing the goals of teaching and of scientific research, most particularly in the field of the medical sciences. The possibilities they [cadavers] offer in this respect, which are absolutely irreplaceable, make them indispensable to the delicate process of the general training of most health professionals, all the more so of those in the diverse medical and surgical specialities. It is important, therefore, to establish a set of guiding principles and rules that might enable us, in efficacious manner, to overstep the present situation and prevent at the same time that various expedient solutions, connected or not to fortuitous circumstances (e.g. abandoned corpses) may give rise to situations that are less than clear. The necessity for special legislation on this matter is actually established already in Article 1, paragraph 3, of Law no.12/93 of the 22nd of April.
2. The philosophy adopted in that legislative measure, on the lines of what has been provided for the harvesting and transplantation of human-origin organs and tissues, allows that national citizens, people with no nationality, or foreigners resident in Portugal who die in national territory should all be potential subjects for the acts provided for in that legal instrument, except if they should have manifested in life, to the Ministry of Health, their opposition thereto; the text also specifies the deadlines for the practice of such acts. The legislator decided, however, that the dissection of cadavers could only take place when, besides the absence of a manifestation of opposition, there was also no opposition from the person(s) legally entitled to objection pursuant to Article 4, paragraph 1.
3. It was deemed to be equally fundamental to ensure the fullest use of the human, economic and organisational resources already existing and available through the National Registry of Non-Donors (RENNDA), so that, while complying with the legal imperative, the least possible perturbations were introduced in a system already in place and demonstrably efficient. Thus, the use of the RENNDA is proposed, as a registry of the manifest opposition by all who, alive and in sound mind, wish to affirm the unavailability of their cadaver or parts thereof for posthumous use, and for the extraction of parts, tissues or organs therefrom for the purposes of teaching and scientific investigation.
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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Opinions were sought from the Higher Council of Forensic Medicine, the National Council of Ethics for the Life Sciences and the Council of Deans of Portuguese Universities. Therefore: Pursuant to the authorisation given by Law no. /98 of the of , and to the provisions of Art. 198, paragraph 1, of the Constitution, the Government decrees the following: Article 1 (Scope) The aim of the present legal instrument is to regulate those situations wherein it is licit to dissect the cadavers or parts thereof of national citizens, people without nationality, or foreigners, who reside in Portugal, and those situations wherein it is licit to extract cadaver parts, tissues or organs for the purposes of teaching and scientific investigation.
Article 2 (Authorised entities) The acts referred in the previous Article may be performed only after verification of death by a medical doctor, in accordance with the Law, at the medical schools of public Universities, at Forensic Medicine Institutes, at Forensic Cabinets, and at the Pathological Anatomy services of Hospitals, after due authorisation by the Head of the service concerned.
Article 3 (Permitted acts) 1. The dissection of cadavers or parts thereof is allowed, for the purposes provided for in Article 1, provided that: a) The person has not expressed in life, to the Ministry of Health, his/her opposition; and b) The body has not been legitimally claimed within 24 hours after the death has been communicated.
2. The extraction of parts, tissues or organs is allowed for the purposes stipulated in Article 1, provided the person has not expressed in life, to the Ministry of Health, his/her opposition.
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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Article 4 (Legitimacy) 1. The persons legitimately entitled to claim the body are, successively: a) The Executor of the Will, fulfilling a provision thereto in the Will; b) The surviving spouse or person who lived with the deceased for more than five years in conditions analogous to those of spouses; c) Direct ascendants and descendants, foster parents or adopted children; d) Relatives up to those twice removed in the collateral line of kinship.
2. Outside the situations provided for in the preceding paragraph, claims for the body are to be attended only after a possible utilisation of the cadaver for the purposes of teaching and scientific research, bearing in mind that the entities that may carry out the acts described in Article 1 must attenuate, so far as it is possible, the visible marks caused by their practice. 3. In the cases provided for in the preceding paragraph, the cadaver may not be retained for more than 8 days in the premises of the entities referred to in Article 2.
Article 5 (Expression of opposition) 1. The opposition referred in Article 3, paragraph a) is to be made on an official form and is freely revocable by the person who expressed it. 2. The form referred to in the preceding paragraph is to be entered in the National Registry of Non-Donors (RENNDA), and is subject, with the necessary adaptations, to the provisions of Decree-Law no.244/94 of the 26th of September. 3. For the purposes provided for in the present legal instrument, the entities referred in Article 2 shall have access, in useful time, to the data recorded in the RENNDA.
Article 6 (Prohibitions) 1. The commercialisation, for the purposes provided for in the present legal instrument, of cadavers and of parts, tissues or organs extracted thereof is prohibited at any time.
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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2. The disclosure of the identity of the person whose cadaver has been dissected, or the disclosure of the destination given to parts, tissues or organs extracted thereof is prohibited.
Article 7 (Conservation and utilisation) The entities provided for in Article 2 must ensure the conservation and utilisation of the cadavers or their parts, and parts, tissues or organs extracted thereof, treating them with due respect and using the most appropriate technical and scientific means.
Article 8 (Registration) The entities authorised to carry out the acts regulated herein must create documentation systems that permit their accurate identification, by entering into the service's own system of records: a) Elements relating to the cadaver, especially as regards its identification; b) References to the entire process of utilisation of the cadaver since its provenience and up to its final destination; c) The parts, tissues or organs extracted for the purposes of teaching and scientific research; d) The acts referred to in Article 11 below.
Article 9 (Transportation) The transportation of cadavers from the place where they are deposited to the premises of the entities provided for in Article 2 must be done in accordance with the Law, ensuring the respect due to human mortal remains; all expenses must be borne by those entities.
Article 10 (Expert forensic investigations) The utilisation of the cadaver or of parts thereof, and of parts, tissues or organs for the purposes provided for herein, must not hinder any possible expert forensic expert investigation that is required. R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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Article 11 (Destination of the remains) The remains of dissected cadavers that are not useful to its reconstitution, and those parts, tissues or organs that are not kept for the purposes of teaching and scientific investigation are to be buried or cremated, in accordance with the Law.
Article 12 (Awareness-raising actions) The curricula of degrees in the area of Health must contain awareness-raising actions, aimed at increasing respect for the cadaver and at imparting the significance, in terms of social solidarity, of the dissection of cadavers or parts thereof and of the extraction of parts, tissues or organs for the purposes of teaching and scientific research.
Article 13 (Liability) Those who violate the provisions of this law will incur in civil, penal and disciplinary liability, in accordance with general Law.
Reviewed and approved in Cabinet Meeting, on the
The Prime Minister The Minister of Justice The Minister of Education The Minister of Health
R. Prof. Gomes Teixeira, Edifício da PCM, 3º andar, sala 321, tel. 392.76.88, fax 392.79.75/76.15 e.mail: [email protected] 1350 LISBOA
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