Sep 27, 2016 4 min read

Pennsylvania State Coroners Association is pushing state legislators to amend two bills that would update regulations to organ donation statutes.

The association made sweeping complaints Monday against House Bill 30 and Senate Bill 180. A release made several claims, including the bills would mandate children be taught organ donation would enhance life expectancy, minorities would be ineligible for organs donated by whites and parents would have no right to override a child’s decision on donation. But UPMC medical ethicist Jason Byron said the bills don’t enforce such draconian measures.

“It just isn’t true (that families) don’t have a say over what happens to their loved ones when they die. Current law provides that families cannot rescind prior consent to donate,” Byron said. The bills would mandate children be educated at school about organ donation, but Byron said “the stated goal of the awareness program is to emphasize the benefits of organ and tissue donation to the health and well-being of society.”

Keegan Gibson, a media spokesman for the Center for Organ Recovery, said HB 30 would not change the required parental authorization needed for a 16-year-old to become an organ donor.

Among legislators’ proposed amendments the association agrees with include requiring a study of funding to certified organ procurement organizations and to adding language that a coroner shall have exclusive authority over allowing organ or tissue donation during an investigation. Susan Shanaham, legislative liaison for the association, and Washington County Coroner Tim Warco said their priority concern is that the bills would circumvent the authority and ability of medical examiners to conduct autopsies effectively and coordinate efforts with crime scene investigations.

“My job is to defend the rights of a decedent. My major concern is nonprofits like CORE are trying to legislate around statutes that govern the coroner’s office establishing cause and manner of death,” Warco said. “I am in favor of organ donation but it cannot trump the fact that no one who has died should have an impaired investigation, especially if there’s a criminal element.”

Byron said the bills complicate the procedure to maintain jurisdiction over a body, but not the actual merits of keeping one for examination.

“As of now, coroners would maintain jurisdiction of the body and may deny donation. The process change here is that the reasons for denial must be given in writing, and the coroner is invited to attend the surgery and may request biopsies, photographic or other evidence, and may deny specific tissues or organs,” Byron said.

HB 30 states “no removal of the organ shall occur if the coroner or medical examiner or designee has denied recovery.”

As for the claim that people could receive organs only from those of their own ethnic backgrounds, Shanaham referred to education literature, “The Decision of a Lifetime Classroom Toolkit: Organ and Tissue Awareness Project,” and not the bills themselves. One page says, “Race does not play a part in the allocation of organs. Some diseases of the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas and liver are found more frequently among specific racial or ethnic populations,” and states successful transplantation is enhanced by matching organs between members of the same ethic and racial group.

Shanaham said racism is disguised in the language.

“I am unaware of such genetic differences between races (that require pairing of donors and recipients). Gov. Bob Casey received heart and liver transplants from a black man,” Shanaham said.

Byron, however, dismissed that concern, saying “the other speculations about what the curriculum may include are absurd.”

Another claim in the release is that families would receive no compensation or payment for funeral expenses for organ donors. The bill language suggests otherwise. In HB 30, there is a proposal to provide no more than $3,000 to cover medical, funeral and incidental expenses for a donor family. Byron said the situation presents a dilemma.

“This is extremely controversial ethically. Payment for organ donations would raise concerns about the consent process and coercion,” said Byron, noting current law does not provide for compensation.

The bills’ primary sponsors, state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, and state Rep., Joseph Petrarca, D-Westmoreland, could not be reached for comment.

Both bills are still being considered their bodies’ respective judiciary committees.