Regulations that will help some of the most vulnerable people who require organ transplant has just been passed by the House of Representatives. I applaud this kind and wise decision as the family of a child who may one day have a graft. It also speaks to the graft system’s failings, which was felt by legislators as compelled to do in the first place.
The , act, the Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act, sponsored by Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., does what its name implies. It directs the board overseeing the national organ transplant system, and other entities ( like transplant hospitals ), not to discriminate against an individual’s access to an organ transplant” solely on the basis of that individual’s disability”.
One may legitimately wonder why this law should be required. Why should organ transplant centers always treat patients with disabilities in the name of discrimination? However, that logic ignores the destructive manner in which our organ transplant system has been in place for far too long.
Multiple investigations by , Congress , and , outside entities , have demonstrated the problems with the organ procurement organizations ( OPOs ) that run the transplant system nationwide. These local organizations have localized monopolies for years, and their behaviour reflects this fact. OPOs frequently ignore patient issues and lose organs during the payment and transplantation process.
OPOs also have a record of , discarding organs , viewed as less-than-perfect, because workers see maintaining a good” success rate” for the transplants they do accomplish as desirable to performing more procedures — even if this mindset means more people die waiting for a transplant.
Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed into law,  , legislation , last year that actually broke up the OPO dominance, but a recent , hearing , by the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee revealed there is more job to do. Legislators were given evidence at the hearing about OPOs refusing to perform transplants for ostensibly random reasons. One witness, who used to work for the OPOs ‘ national overseer, claimed he had seen” credible allegations” of entities favoring “wealthy” and “famous people on the organ transplant waiting list by skipping over other people on the waiting list, as well as “alleged allegations of organ harvesting from people who whistleblowers believe would otherwise have survived.”
Studies of these allegations undermine both the public’s trust in the system’s justice and the credibility of the participating doctors and institutions. Patients should have absolutely no doubt that physicians, transplant hospitals, and OPOs are treating them with the patient’s interests entirely in mind— never the transplant hospital’s lower line, the OPO’s” success rate”, or some other measurement not focused on patient care.
As the mother of a special needs baby and original member of the National Council on Disability, I want to make sure that my child receives the best care possible, even if and when she needs a graft. In light of this, I applaud the House’s unanimous decision to pass Cammack’s costs, which will help ensure that all transplant-requiring patients receive fair and equitable treatment when making decisions about tissue planning.
To continue the work that politicians have done recently to improve our organ transplantation structure, I hope the Senate will soon go this policy so that the leader you sign it into law. With an average of , 17 people dying every day , while waiting for an instrument graft, we have no time to waste.