Australian laws regarding the use of human tissue will be reviewed for the first time in almost 50 years.
University of Adelaide lecturer Dr Maeghan Toews has been appointed as a full-time Commissioner at the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to lead the inquiry.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said Dr Toews was a legal academic specialising in health law and had spent the last decade researching organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
“It has been almost fifty years since all Australian jurisdictions introduced legislation regulating the use of human tissue,” Attorney-General Dreyfus said.
“Since that time significant social, technological, and scientific changes have occurred, and human tissue laws have not kept pace.”
He said the inquiry would consider reforms to harmonise and modernise human tissue laws across Australia relating to cell, tissue, and organ retrieval, donation and transplantation.
“The ALRC will make recommendations for governments to address any inconsistencies between laws and advise how they can be updated to reflect contemporary expectations and changing technology.”
Attorney-General Dreyfus said the ALRC was due to report by August 16, 2026.
