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Tex. Penal Code § 48.02

PROHIBITION OF THE PURCHASE AND SALE OF HUMAN ORGANS

Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Evanston Insurance Co. v. Legacy of Life, Inc. (2012)

Most recently applied in Planned Parenthood v. Phillips (January 2022)

Added by Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 40, Sec. 1, eff

How often courts cite this section

1992200020102020202210
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) In this section, "human organ" means the human kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, eye, bone, skin, or any other human organ or tissue, but does not include hair or blood, blood components (including plasma), blood derivatives, or blood reagents. The term does not include human fetal tissue as defined by Section 48.03.

(b) A person commits an offense if he or she knowingly or intentionally offers to buy, offers to sell, acquires, receives, sells, or otherwise transfers any human organ for valuable consideration.

(c) It is an exception to the application of this section that the valuable consideration is: (1) a fee paid to a physician or to other medical personnel for services rendered in the usual course of medical practice or a fee paid for hospital or other clinical services; (2) reimbursement of legal or medical expenses incurred for the benefit of the ultimate receiver of the organ; or (3) reimbursement of expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ.

(d) An offense under this section is a state jail felony.

Official source: Texas Constitution and Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Texas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.