Disability No Reason To Deny Organ Transplants, Lawmakers Say

DISABILITY SCOOP | Michelle Diamant

A surgeon carries a donated harvested kidney that he is preparing to transplant. Members of Congress are calling on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance regarding the rights of people with disabilities seeking organ transplants. (Keith Bedford/Reuters)

Members of Congress are pressing the Obama administration to issue guidance clarifying that life-saving organ transplants should not be denied because of a person’s developmental disability.

In a letter sent this month to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, 30 members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged the agency to address what they called “persistent” organ transplant discrimination.

“Unfortunately, many transplant centers and surgeons continue to refuse to provide access to transplant registries and transplantation surgery to qualified people with disabilities,” reads the correspondence to Jocelyn Samuels, director of the Office for Civil Rights.

“No one should be denied their right to life simply because of their intellectual and/or development disabilities,” the lawmakers wrote. Continue reading

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