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House BIll Could Change Organ Donors' Right to Decide

January 31, 2000
By: Jessica Carter
State Capital Bureau

A House subcommittee is reviewing a bill that could change the legal age of organ donors and who has the right to make an organ donation, with parental consent. Jessica Carter has the story in Jefferson City.

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A bill sponosred by Democratic Legislator Chuck Graham would give minors, of sixteen years, the right to decide whether or not they would donate their organs. Witnesses at the subcommittee meeting said they believe that families should be involved in the decision.

However, Graham says that it should be an individual decision and that signed organ donor cards would be proper documentation to legally make the donations.

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Contents: He says that a person's final wish should be carried out and that organ donations should be decided by the individual. Also says that he would't want distant relatives changing a decision that he made.)

The subcommittee plans to meet again to hear more witnesses and to review similar legislation in other states.

From the State Capitol, I'm Jessica Carter.

A House bill under review would make it easier for minors to make organ donations. Jessica Carter has the story from Jefferson City.

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A House subcommittee on Public Health is reviewing a bill that would give minors, starting at age sixteen, the right to donate organs with parental consent. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Legislator Chuck Graham, also says that organ donor cards would be sufficient documentation to legally carry out the transplant.

Diedra Thompson from the Heartland Lions Eye Bank disagrees and says that families should be involved in the decision.

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Contents: (She says that families need to have decision making right because they are the ones who will deal with it everyday afterwards.)

Graham says the right belongs to the donor and that primary consent should be taken from the individual who decides to make a donation. From the State Capitol, I'm Jessica Carter.