## Facts

- Robert McFall, age 39, suffered from aplastic anemia and faced imminent death without a bone marrow transplant from a compatible donor.
- Testing among McFall’s relatives identified David Shimp, McFall’s first cousin, as the only compatible donor.
- Shimp was healthy but refused additional testing and the bone marrow donation procedure.
- McFall filed an equity action seeking a preliminary injunction to compel Shimp to submit to testing and ultimately donate bone marrow.
- McFall argued that equity had power to order the donation, including by analogy to historical English chancery practice; the court found no supporting authority for compelled living-tissue donation.

## Issues

1. Whether a court sitting in equity may compel an unwilling, healthy adult to undergo invasive medical procedures to provide bone marrow to save another person’s life.
2. Whether the common-law rule that there is no legal duty to rescue or aid bars injunctive relief requiring bodily intrusion.

## Decision

- The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County denied the requested preliminary injunction.
- The court held that it lacked legal authority to compel Shimp to submit to bodily intrusion, even to save McFall’s life.
- The court distinguished moral obligation from legal compulsion, stating that Shimp’s refusal could be morally wrong yet legally protected.

## Legal Principles

- At common law, a person generally has no legal duty to rescue or render aid to another, even where aid could prevent death.
- Courts will not order equitable relief that requires compelled invasion of bodily integrity or forced medical treatment of a competent adult.
- Equity cannot be used to create an unprecedented, unlimited power to appropriate one person’s body for another’s benefit absent legislative authorization.

## Conclusion

The court refused to compel bone marrow donation, concluding that bodily autonomy and the common-law absence of a duty to aid prevent a court from ordering invasive medical procedures on an unwilling, healthy person, even when the procedure may save another’s life.


McFall v. Shimp, 10 Pa. D. & C.3d 90 (Ct. Com. Pl. Allegheny Cnty. 1978)