An Examination of the Nexus between Law and Medical Ethics in the Procurement and Transplantation of Human Organs in Nigeria

The interaction subsisting between law and medical ethics, more particularly, legal control of procurement and transplantation of human organ in Nigeria is attractive premised on grounds of its history and the resultant effect of the conundrum in a heterogeneous society, largely made up of different religious beliefs. Against this backdrop, the authors examined the relational basis for the overall interaction between law and medical ethics, regard been had to the fact that medical practitioners are in the main saddled with the responsibility of procuring and transplanting of human organs aimed at restoring and where applicable reviving the health conditions of patients, notwithstanding the socio-cultural religious belief system of the individuals comprised in the Nigerian society. The authors argued that law should be a supportive instrument in providing a stabilising effect on all aspects of practice of medicine, inclusive of the process of obtaining consent of the patient, procurement and transplantation of human organs. Consequently, the paper therefore maintained the imperatives of having various social and legal systems evolve a similitude of standardised proceedings and ethos relating to the protection of the health of its population, even at the detriment of socio- cultural and religious systems as applicable in Nigeria. The institutionalisation of the medical regime sector will invariably lead to the control of medical practice in the process of obtaining consent, procurement and transplantation of human organs in a developing multicultural society.