ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- If you're promised an organ for a transplant in New York, that doesn't mean you own it.
Citing 17th-century British common law on grave robbing, the state's highest court unanimously ruled Thursday that a Florida man did not own a kidney promised to him by the widow of a lifelong friend.
The state Court of Appeals said it relied in part on Lord Coke's 400-year-old pronouncement "that a corpse has no value" to decide that Robert Colavito had no right to Peter Lucia's kidney and the New York Organ Donor Network legally gave it to another patient.
Details here from the AP, or read the court's opinion. (via Bashman)