The ethical and legal implications of Pennsylvania's proposal to give $300 toward the cost of the funeral expenses of organ donors will undergo a thorough review before the state finally decides whether to implement the plan.
The plan will not go into effect without the approval of Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which did not estimate when it expects a decision. On June 9, the state's Organ and Tissue Donation Advisory Committee proposed the plan to the health department.
"The single-largest problem confronting organ donation is the shortage of suitable organs for transplant," said Robert S. Zimmerman, Jr., Acting Secretary of Health. "But the recommended $300 reimbursement also has raised legal and ethical issues, and it is very important that we consider these issues, too. That's why I've asked Pennsylvania's Physician General, Dr. Robert Muscalus, and the Department of Health's Office of Chief Counsel to review, respectively, the medical ethics and legal issues involved."
The Organ Donation Advisory Committee was created under Act 102 of 1994, which established a trust fund for voluntary contributions and empowered the committee to advise the health department on how to use the fund to increase organ donations in Pennsylvania. The law also provided for the possibility of using 10% of the fund to reimburse the families of donors indirectly for funeral or medical expenses, and it directed the advisory committee to develop procedures to implement the provision, according to the health department.
The specific proposal to offer $300 toward funeral expenses—which would be paid to the funeral home and not the family of the organ donor—has drawn strong reactions since the April announcement that the plan was expected to go forward (see Transplant News Network for May 15, 1999).
On June 10, Howard M. Nathan, president of the Gift of Life Donor Program, which serves eastern Pennsylvania, said in a statement that the program is worth a try. "We don't know if the proposed, 'modest' funeral benefit will encourage more people to be donors. We believe that, if implemented, the program will encourage more families to openly discuss the issue of organ donation. This alone makes the program worthy of implementation."
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