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House passes
bill that would allow 'paired' kidney donations
Mar 08, 2007--The House on Wednesday unanimously approved
legislation (HR
710) to specify that "paired" kidney donations do not
violate laws prohibiting compensation for organ donations, the
AP/Long
Island Newsday
reports.
The bill -- named the Charlie W. Norwood Living Organ Donation Act,
after the former Georgia representative who died of cancer last
month -- was introduced in January by Norwood (R) and Rep. Jay
Inslee (D-Wash.) to increase the number of paired kidney donations
performed at hospitals each year.
 In
paired donations, a patient in need of an organ transplant with a
willing, but medically incompatible, friend or family member is
matched with a similarly incompatible pair so that both patients can
receive a transplant.
Current law makes the legality of such donations questionable
because of the concern that trading organs constitutes compensation.
Some hospitals refuse to perform paired donations and there is no
formal matchmaking system to expand their use,
AP/Newsday
reports (Evans, AP/Long Island
Newsday,
3/7). Norwood estimated that the bill could save Medicaid an
estimated $220,000 per transplant patient in dialysis costs (Kemper,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/7). T
he
Congressional Budget Office
has estimated that paired donations could save Medicare $500 million
over 10 years in dialysis costs (AP/Long Island
Newsday,
3/7).
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