Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants to create a national Internet-based registry that would allow organ procurement organizations to instantaneously match organ donors and recipients and would make it simple for Americans to register to become donors.
On March 11, Senator Schumer said he plans to introduce legislation to create such a registry. "My legislation would help thousands of patients and donors instantly make a life-saving match by creating one simple database where donors can make themselves known and recipients can find them," he said in a statement. Current methods of determining if a person is a donor require OPOs "to sift through thousands of piecemeal records," he said.
Under the legislation, the Organ and Tissue Donation Enhancement Act of 2001, the Department of Health and Human Services would administer a federal database containing the name, address, birth date, sex, height, and eye color of every organ and tissue donor in the United States. Participation in the registry would not be legally binding, the statement said.
Other aspects of the legislation include the following:
* To
encourage participation in the registry, pamphlets encouraging organ donation
and specifying how to access the website and participate in the registry would
be mailed to every tax-paying citizen along with the person's tax forms.
*
The bill would help the 40 states that do not have statewide registries to
establish them by enabling the states to apply for up to $100,000 in
grants.
* The bill would also establish a new task force of organ donation
experts to study ways to improve the registry, increase donations, and increase
public awareness.
For Your Information:
See Senator Schumer's statement at www.senate.gov/~schumer/html/as_new_york_faces_its_worst_or.html.
See New York Times coverage at www.nytimes.com/2001/03/12/nyregion/12DONO.html. Registration is required.
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