Maxim Ali has commented on a bill for Kommersant to expand the list of purposes for which close relatives can transfer the body of the deceased

Deputies of the Leningrad region have submitted to the State Duma a bill granting close relatives of deceased persons the right to transfer the body for use in scientific, medical and educational purposes. According to the current legislation, they can give consent to the removal of organs or tissues of the deceased only for donation. According to the authors of the initiative, legislative gaps has led to a decrease in the quality of medical care due to poor training in part due to a lack of cadaveric material.

Senior Associate at Maxima Legal, Maxim Ali, explained to the Kommersant newspaper that the bill says that relatives have the right to give written consent to use the body if the deceased himself did not object to it. “That is, if we don’t know what the deceased really thought about using his body, then the relatives have the freedom to choose how to dispose of this body,” Maxim commented.

Maxim Ali also underlined that the bill raises practical questions. “For example, it is unclear whether it is justifiable to consent to the use of the body in simple written form (without a notary public), since it can be faked, and then relatives will not be able to “roll back the situation”, that is demand the body, organs or tissues back,” he explained . According to Maxim, it is also not obvious what to do if one of the relatives agrees to use the body, and another objects.

To read the full article (in Russian), please see the Kommersant website >>>