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The authors discuss the ethical and legal issues related to organ donation and the retrieval process, the role and responsibility of science and technology in transplantation and the impact of transplantation on the society. They also discuss the benefits of the donation of organs and the role of scientific research in the development and success of clinical transplantation. Winter ethics symposium on the topic "The ethics of organ retrieval: goals, rights and responsibilities" is also discussed.

This article proposes that in a situation of posthumous organ and tissue donation the cadaver has no individual rights and that family rights should in no way automatically outweigh the potential transplant recipients' right to a life-saving treatment. It explains that clinical transplantation and transplant immunobiology is a revolutionary area of medicine which has saved thousands of lives. It says that with this proposal many lives will be saved.