Transnational Crimes Related to Health: How should the law respond to the illicit organ tourism?

Sheelagh McGuinness, Jean McHale

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper, to paraphrase Scheper-Hughes, we explore the contested legalities and illegalities of medical tourism. Increasingly, individuals are travelling outside of their home jurisdiction to access health services. This may be for a range of reasons: for speed, for cheapness or in some cases to bypass criminal restrictions at state level. This paper explores those who fall into the latter category and who travel to avoid statutory or regulatory prohibitions in relation to certain clinical procedures in England and Wales. In this paper, we consider the appropriate legal response to illicit transplant tourism. We examine the legitimacy of using extra-territorial jurisdiction to enforce the ban on the commercial trade in organs found in the Human Tissue Act 2004. We suggest that this, along with the recent Draft Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs, provide an effective response to the transnational crime of illicit organ tourism.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)682–708
JournalLegal Studies
Volume34
Issue number4
Early online date8 Dec 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2014

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Transnational Crimes Related to Health: How should the law respond to the illicit organ tourism?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this