Legislation: Making Transplants Easier

Novelist Grace (Peyton Place) Metalious, who died in Boston in 1964, willed that her body be given to either Dartmouth or Harvard medical schools. But Massachusetts law required the consent of the next of kin for any such donation. Grace's family said no, and the bequest was not carried out. This led a five-judge New Hampshire court, which ruled on a second disputed clause in the will, to note in passing: "The need for appropriate statutory provision to implement the desires of the dying to aid the living is increasingly urgent." Now...

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