Research On The Civil Laws Protecting Human Placenta

Placenta, as an organ that provides nutrition for the fetus, is an importantresearch material for pharmacology and physiology. In Animalia, the female will eather placenta after parturition to recover energy or strength. Human being’s placentahas huge pharmaceutical value which has been ignored by puerperal. Only a few ofpuerperal ask for their placenta. In recent years, the problem of how to deal withplacenta is heated and arouses people’s awareness concerning the placenta and itsrelevant legal issues. In the point of view of civil law, the author will research anddiscuss those legal issues about placenta.This paper compares the definition and extension of human organ, humanmedical wastes, and the definition of object in civil law so that to define theplacenta’s property. The definition of placenta, for its property as an object andproperty in civil law, will lay a foundation for us to research on the ownership ofplacenta. For many years, medical institutions consider the placenta parted from thebody can be dealt with by hospitals as medical wastes, just as sarcoma or amputatedbodies. But, it’s not true. Since we have defined the placenta has the property ofobject in civil law, we can consider that its ownership belongs to the puerperal. In2005, the Ministry of Health published an official reply concerning the disposition ofplacenta (hereafter as the Reply). The Reply clearly regulates that the ownership ofplacenta belongs to the puerperal after parturition.In the issue of placenta, the puerperal and medical institution have their ownrights and duties respectively. The puerperal has the rights of information andagreement of how to dispose the placenta. The medical institution has the duty todisclosure about the relevant issues concerning the placenta, and the right ofdisposition of placenta which are discarded or donated by the puerperal.Although the present laws and regulations stipulate that the ownership ofplacenta belongs to the puerperal, the disposition of placenta is still disordered intrue situation. One notable thing is that once the unhealthy placenta which has contagious diseases will bring harms if they are sold in the market, it not only affectsthe health of people, but also brings numerous ethical problems. The Reply stipulatesthat if the puerperal discards or donates the placenta, the medical institutions coulddispose the placenta. But there is no specific articles about how to dispose theplacenta. Thus there exists a blank in the disposition of placenta.Therefore, according to those flaws in the civil laws of placenta protection, thepaper proposes four suggestions. The first one, set the placenta as an object in itsposition in the property law. The author suggests to set the placenta to be limited inthe market in the further amendment in Property Law, and proposesrecommendations about how to make the placenta circulated legally in the future.Secondly, establish the subject system that the puerperal is the subject of the placentaand further clarify that the puerperal has the rights and duties of her placenta. Thirdly,perfect the remedy system of infringement on the placenta, propose effective remedymethods to protect the rights of puerperal, and reduce the cases of infringement ofthe placenta. Lastly, from the ethical principles protect the placenta, suggest toeradicate the eating placenta, and let the pharmaceutical companies to burden theresponsibilities of making the placenta into medicine.Choosing a proper research method will yield twice achievement with halfefforts. The author adopts logic analysis method and comparison method to researchthe legal issues concerning the placenta. With gathering and sorting out variousmaterials, finding out a unitary logic mind, and comparing the existing conceptions,finally the author defines the legal property and ownership of placenta. With theanalogy method, the author integrates the patients’ right to information and medicalinstitutions’ duty of disclosure into the research of placenta. Meantime, the authorclarifies the specialty of the duties and rights in the issues of placenta so that toprovide a support for perfecting the protection system in civil law concerningplacenta.