The legal aspects of the rights on biological materials of human origin and their treatment in legal transactions

Determining the legal status of organs, tissues and human cells, which are treated under the name of ?biological material of the human body?, has become a necessity. It is for this reason that we must seek out what kinds of rights has the person whose biological material was removed from his body or the rights third parties such as scientists, doctors, hospitals or medical and research institutions hold, and how they acquire and lose their rights on these biological elements. On the other hand, due to the different needs of individuals; organs, tissues and cells, are subjected to different types of contracts. Today, biological elements are removed from a body for therapeutic purposes, as well as aesthetics, diagnostics, storage, scientific researches and also to be transplanted into other human bodies. Intermediary institutions such as blood and tissue banks transfer these substances from donors to medical institutions such as hospitals, and then, the biological materials are transplanted into the bodies of people for their treatment or to ensure reproduction thereof. Transplantation, freezing, storage, production and reproduction of human biological substances give rise to a number of medical problems and many legal problems as well. To resolve these problems, the legal qualifications of these contracts should be identified. This work was conducted for the purpose of solving legal problems created by current researches and technical applications on organs, tissues, cells, reproductive cells, stem cells and related substances such as DNA molecules.