As the latest moratorium on proposed rules to change organ distribution policy in the United States draws closer to expiring, opponents continue to voice their objections.
The newly formed Coalition of Major Transplant Centers has urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to withdraw the rules, and a senator has said he plans to introduce legislation that would supercede them. Both the coalition and Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) want Congress to reauthorize the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 (NOTA), which would give responsibility for organ allocation policy to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network instead of HHS.
The coalition said in a statement that it objects to HHS secretary Donna Shalala's "attempt to assert an authority to promulgate organ allocation policy, contending this goes well beyond the oversight authority that Congress intended" when it first passed NOTA.
The coalition, which represents 17 U.S. medical centers, voiced its objections in a February 20 letter to the Health Resources and Services Administration. "These are not questions that lend themselves to political sound bites. The department's effort to build support for its effort to take over the making of organ allocation policy has been rooted in use of such politically appealing phrases as 'sickest first' and insistence-long after the Institute of Medicine told DHHS it was dead wrong-on using median waiting times as a measure of 'fairness' because 'it is simple for the public to understand,'" the coalition complained.
Reuters news services reported on February 24 that Sen. Frist, a former transplant surgeon, is planning to introduce legislation that would reauthorize NOTA. The news service said the senator wanted to introduce the legislation before March 16, the date that HHS's proposal to change the organ distribution system is scheduled to become effective. For Your Information:
For Your Information:
The coalition's letter is posted at www.majortransplantcenters.org/press/letter_Feb22.htm.
Its press release is at http://www.majortransplantcenters.org/press/pr1_feb22.htm.
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