(a) Except as provided in subdivisions (d) and (e), it shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, sell, promote the transfer of, or otherwise transfer any human organ, for purposes of transplantation, for valuable consideration.
(b) Except as provided in subdivisions (d), (e), and (f), it shall be unlawful to remove or transplant any human organ with the knowledge that the organ has been acquired or will be transferred or sold for valuable consideration in violation of subdivision (a).
(c) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Human organ” includes, but is not limited to, a human kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, or any other human organ or nonrenewable or nonregenerative tissue except plasma and sperm.
(2) “Valuable consideration” means financial gain or advantage, but does not include the reasonable costs associated with the removal, storage, transportation, and transplantation of a human organ, or reimbursement for those services, or the expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ.
(d) No act respecting the nonsale donation of organs or other nonsale conduct pursuant to or in the furtherance of the purposes of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 7150) Part 1 of Division 7 of the Health and Safety Code, including acts pursuant to anatomical gifts offered under Section 12811 of the Vehicle Code, shall be made unlawful by this section.
(e) This section shall not apply to the person from whom the organ is removed, nor to the person who receives the transplant, or those persons’ next-of-kin who assisted in obtaining the organ for purposes of transplantations.
(f) A licensed physician and surgeon who transplants a human organ in violation of subdivision (b) shall not be criminally liable under that subdivision if the act is performed under emergency and life-threatening conditions.
(g) Any person who violates subdivision (a) or (b) shall be punished by a fine not to exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for three, four, or five years, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 334. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018