Consent must be specific and documented.
For interventions affecting bodily integrity, a general reference to consent is not enough. Content, timing, information and proof of the declaration must be reviewed.
Organ removal in the 2026 draft: consent, objection, sections 90 and 190 and criminal-law review.
Mag. Christopher Angerer, Rechtsanwalt
Your lawyer for criminal defence
Criminal proceedings are a matter of trust. One lawyer who walks with you from the first consultation through to the trial, everything from one hand.
The draft affects the criminal-law assessment of organ removal and the relevance of consent or objection. Medical documentation and criminal-law analysis must be kept separate.
This article focuses only on this part of the 2026 criminal law draft. The general overview remains the starting point and is linked below.
This first assessment is not legal advice. It shows which issues should be separated before a statement or file review.
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The options separate consent, objection, records and ongoing proceedings.
For interventions affecting bodily integrity, a general reference to consent is not enough. Content, timing, information and proof of the declaration must be reviewed.
If consent or objection is unclear, a precise chronology is needed. The medical process must be separated from the criminal law assessment.
Incomplete records do not automatically mean criminal liability, but they can make defence more difficult. What was known and documented at the time matters.
In ongoing matters, applicable law, draft status, exact timing and available evidence must be kept separate. A statement should follow file access.
The draft has not been enacted. It can still matter in existing files because it shows which offences and jurisdictional issues may be regulated more precisely.
For legal assessment, the headline of the draft is not decisive. The concrete facts matter: who did what, when did it happen, what role did the person have and what Austrian link is alleged?
The first analysis should keep the legal layers separate.
| Layer | Überblick question | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Which law applied at the relevant time? | Secure chronology and file status |
| Contribution | What concrete conduct is alleged? | Assess role and communication |
| Jurisdiction | Why should Austrian authorities be competent? | Check place of conduct and Austrian link |
File notes, messages, contracts, travel data, medical or organisational documents and an exact timeline may be important. Without chronology, draft law, current law and the actual allegation become blurred.
Before making a statement, affected persons should check whether the allegation is covered by current law at all and whether the draft is mentioned only as background.
The right sequence avoids premature legal conclusions.
The existing article on the 2026 criminal law draft explains the reform as a whole. This article deals only with the specific issue named here and deliberately avoids a second general overview.
Even with current reform topics, there is no criminal liability without a legal basis. Until promulgation, current law remains the starting point for every defence analysis.
Practical point: In reform-related cases, every statement should clearly distinguish current law from proposed law. That distinction is often more important than the political headline.
No. It is a draft. Until entry into force, current law remains decisive.
It may show which questions authorities, companies or participants will examine more closely. In ongoing cases, it does not replace current law.
Timing, concrete contribution, jurisdiction, evidence and the question whether current law covers the allegation should be reviewed.
The broader context of the Ministry of Justice draft in a separate overview.
When a company itself may face criminal responsibility.
Remedies under section 87 of the Austrian Code of Criminal Procedure.
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