'Tis Better To Receive: The Case for an Organ Donee's Cause of Action

Abstract:     
In Colavito v. New York Organ Donor Network, the Second Circuit addressed a case in which organ transplant surgeons misallocated an organ that had been promised to Robert Colavito by the organ donor's widow, instead transplanting the organ into another patient. The court decided that Colavito had no cause of action under existing law to sue the surgeons for the improper disposition of the organ. This Comment argues that there are sound policy justifications for an intended organ donee to have a cause of action in such circumstances, if several caveats are accounted for. The Comment explains that a donee's cause of action could be superior to a donor's cause of action, because the donee's greater material stake in the organ's proper disposition makes the donee more likely to effectively enforce that outcome. The Comment also proposes several liability exceptions, and discusses why a donee's cause of action is of growing importance, based on current trends in organ transplantation.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Accepted Paper Series