In a world that is often ruled by buyers and sellers, those things that are often considered priceless become objects to be marketed and from which to earn a profit.

Biotechnology and the Challenge of Property addresses the question of how the advancement of property law is capable of controlling the interests generated by the engineering of human tissues. Through a comparative consideration of non-Western societies and industrialized cultures, this book addresses the impact of modern biotechnology, and its legal accommodation on the customary conduct and traditional beliefs which shape the lives of different communities. Nwabueze provides an introduction to the legal regulation of the evolving uses of human tissues, and its implications for traditional knowledge, beliefs and cultures.

In the 1980s, following the recommendation of a presidential commission, all fifty states replaced previous cardiopulmonary definitions of death with one that also included total and irreversible cessation of brain function. The Definition of Death: Contemporary Controversies is the first comprehensive review of the clinical, philosophical, and public policy implications of our effort to redefine the change in status from living person to corpse. Edited by Stuart J. Youngner, Robert M. Arnold, and Renie Schapiro, the book is the result of a collaboration among internationally recognized scholars from the fields of medicine, philosophy, social science, law, and religious studies. Throughout, the contributors struggle to reconcile inconsistencies and gaps in our traditional understanding of death and to respond to the public's concern that, in the determination of death under current policies, patients' interests may be compromised by the demand for organ retrieval. Their questions about the philosophical and scientific bases for determining death lead, inevitably, to more profound questions of social policy. Acknowledging that the definition of death is as much a social construct as a scientific one, the authors, in their analysis of these issues, provide a comprehensive and provocative source of information for students and scholars alike.

Organ transplantation has been one of the miracles of modern-day medicine but, in addition to presenting enormous technical and clinical challenges, it throws up major ethical and legal issues principally from the perspective of the donor. Evolving capabilities in the spheres of both organ and tissue transplantation, coupled with rapidly-escalating demand, assert consistent and critical pressure on our ethical and legal principles and frameworks, including the expansion of the potential donor pool beyond the conventional categories of donor. This volume brings together seminal papers analyzing such matters in the context of an ever-increasingly important area of clinical practice.

This book, written by the leading practitioners and academics in the field, is rapidly becoming recognized as the authoritative first point of reference for all medical law practitioners. Replete with references to primary sources and the secondary literature, this major undertaking provides acomprehensive exposition of English medical law, from the organisation of health care to the legal meaning of death.The book has been designed with the needs of the practitioner in mind while retaining a depth of analysis that will also find favour with an academic audience. The internal layout of the book has been specifically designed for ease of access, and it will be kept thoroughly up-to-date by way ofannual cumulative supplements compiled by the General Editors.The supplement brings the main work fully up to date to August 2001 and is included in the purchase price. Contents of the Fourth Supplement include, on the legislative front: the Health and Social Care Act 2001, introducing a range of changes to the structure of the NHS as well as to GPdisciplinary procedures and the law of confidentiality; the Care Standards Act 2000, introducing a regulatory framework for private hospitals and clinics; and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, affecting on access to information within the NHS.Important cases covered include: those that have considered the effect of the House of Lords' decision in McFarlane v Tayside Health Board on damages claims by parents for the birth of healthy (Greenfield v Flather) and disabled children (Parkinson v St James and Seacroft University Hospital NHSTrust, Lee v Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust, and Hardman v Amin); also, important cases on the scope of employers' disciplinary procedures within the NHS (Saeed v The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust), the GMC's disciplinary procedures (R v GMC, ex p Richards and Selverathan v GMC) and thefirst case concerned with the GMC's professional performance procedure under the Medical (Professional Performance) Act 1995 (Krippendorf v GMC). The Court of Appeal's decision in the 'conjoined twins case' is analysed (Re A). A number of cases which have explored the impact of the Human RightsAct are considered, involving withdrawal of treatment from PVS patients (NHS Trust A v M; NHS Trust B v H) and a prisoner's right of access to infertility treatment (R v Secretary of State for the Home Dept, ex p Mellor).

History of Modern Biotechnology, devided into two volumes (69 and 70), is devoted to the developments in different countries. A.L. Demain, A. Fang: The Natural Functions of Secondary Metabolites.- T. Beppu: Development of Applied Microbiology to Modern Biotechnology in Japan.- H. Kumagai: Microbial Production of Amino Acids in Japan.- T.K. Ghose, V.S. Bisaria: Development of Biotechnology in India.- M. Roehr: History of Biotechnology in Austria.- J. Hollo, U.P. Kralovánszky: Biotechnology in Hungary.- A. Fiechter: Biotechnology in Switzerland and a Glance at Germany.