Biocrime – A New Concept

Nasty Vladoiu

In order to reflect the interest that human society showed to the evolution of biotechnology and biomedicine, were adopted a series of juridical instruments with universal vocation, national or international, within were consecrated principles and concepts of special importance and which are considered the base of a legal system of protection that will have to be in a continuous improvement.
 The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine of 4 April 1997, also known as the “Oviedo Convention” represents the source of creative inspiration of the states internal legislation, which have adopted ratification laws on national level, based on the Convention's articles.  Romania is among the states which have adopted a position of recognition of the Convention through the Ratification Law no. 17/2001. Therefore, on national level were previously adopted many normative acts, having as result the harmonisation between the national and international legislation, both, the civilian and criminal law. 
 We can mention as a very important event, the adoption of the new Romanian Civil and Criminal Codes, organic laws, but also the special laws in compliance with the nature of the Oviedo's Convention articles.
 Among the special laws, we can remind Law no. 95/2006 on healthcare reform and Law no. 39/2003 on preventing and combating organized crime.
 The chapter “Crimes” from this special laws includes articles that incriminates human trafficking, the procurement of organs that compromise the results of forensic autopsy ,
organization and/or conducting removal of organs and/or tissues and/or cells of human origin for transplantation , that we can call, without any doubt, Biocrimes.
 In the Biocrimes article presentation, we will try to define and configurate this concept. In the same time, we strongly believe that the article in question is the initial start in using this new legal term and, why not, in trying to implement a new concept and to codify this type of crimes, which may be considered the subject of a deep study of the criminal law's branch, with great importance for the development of a poorly configurated legal field, of International Criminal Law.

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