UKZN Anniversary Symposium on the Medico-Legal and Ethical Implications of Human Tissue Use (Forum) (University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban‪)‬

The College of Law and Management Studies and the College of Health Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, co-hosted a Symposium on Medico-Legal and Ethical Implications of Human Tissue Use on 13 and 14 October 2010 to celebrate the University's centenary. The Symposium was addressed by international human tissue experts from Scotland and New Zealand, and was attended by delegates from the leading university schools of anatomy in South Africa. The timing of the Symposium was apposite, given the recent indictment of a number of prominent medical practitioners allegedly involved in contravening the Human Tissue Act 65 of 1983, and the concerns that have arisen regarding the use of human tissue from both the living and the dead for teaching and research - particularly concerning the medical, legal and ethical consequences of such use. The public display of human cadavers in Body Worlds and its spin-off plastinate exhibitions, the Saartje Baartman repatriation, and the exhumation findings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission have also caused controversy. It also coincided with important discussions to amend Chapter 8 of the National Health Act 61 of 2003 regarding the use of human tissue.