CURRENT LEGAL-ASPECTS CONNECTED WITH AUTO LOGOUS BLOOD AND DIRECTED BLOOD DONATION IN GERMANY

If a patient suffers any damage from treatment, the persons involved i n transfusion medicine might be made liable according to civil and pen al law for violations against the standards prescribed by the codes of performance and ethics of the individual professions. In order to avo id organisational liability, criteria for adequate patient care must b e created which regulate facilities and equipment as well as staff. Th e typical hazards encountered in interdisciplinary cooperation between specialists of various branches of medicine must be counteracted by a constructive division of tasks and responsibilities. The participatin g physicians are moreover liable within the scope of the German law fo rbidding so-called 'unlawful interference with the possession of anoth er' in the case of failure to obtain legally binding consent - usually resulting from inadequacies in informing the patient. The landmark de cision by the German Federal Court of Justice on instructing patients about the risks of and alternatives to blood transfusions forces all t hose involved to take the consequences with regard to instructing pati ents about the risks of transfusions and concerning the implementation of techniques for sparing and replacing allogenic blood.