House Bill 0857
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida House of Representatives - 2000 HM 857
By Representative Murman
1 House Memorial
2 A memorial to the Congress of the United
3 States, urging Congress to block any attempt to
4 modify existing federal regulations relating to
5 distribution of organs donated for
6 transplantation.
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8 WHEREAS, although rapid medical and scientific advances
9 have enabled many thousands of Americans, over the past
10 several decades, to receive the gift of life through
11 transplantation, the number of organs donated for
12 transplantation still falls critically short of need, and
13 WHEREAS, last year, more than 21,000 Americans received
14 organ transplants and more than 65,000 were on a transplant
15 waiting list, but more than 4,000 people died while awaiting
16 an organ transplant, and
17 WHEREAS, since 1968, a broad-based national coalition,
18 consisting of transplant professionals, transplant patients,
19 and families of organ donors, has developed and implemented
20 organ allocation policies under contract with the Federal
21 Government, and
22 WHEREAS, the United Network of Organ Sharing, the
23 nonprofit agency under contract with the United States
24 Government to coordinate the distribution of donated human
25 organs, has successfully coordinated organ distribution in the
26 United States since 1986 via a system of designated organ
27 sharing that allowed available donated organs to be offered
28 locally first, then regionally, whenever and whereever a
29 suitable transplant match could be found for the donated
30 organ, and
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1
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Florida House of Representatives - 2000 HM 857
583-191-00
1 WHEREAS, at present, when an organ is donated for
2 transplantation, it is registered with the United Network for
3 Organ Sharing, which then determines which patients are the
4 best matches, based on the patient's time on the waiting list,
5 the severity of the patient's illness, and how closely the
6 patient's genetic material matches that of the available
7 organ, and
8 WHEREAS, Florida's organ procurement organizations have
9 consistently set an industry standard in productivity as
10 measured by Florida's markedly superior rates of donation and
11 donor consent, as evidenced by the fact that Florida's organ
12 procurement programs succeed in obtaining donations from 37
13 persons per million population, while nationally that number
14 is approximately 18 to 20 per million, with some states'
15 donation rates as low as 7 per million, and
16 WHEREAS, as a result of Florida's success in harvesting
17 organs, the state is already an exporter of organs to
18 neighboring states and regions, exporting 40 percent of the
19 organs harvested in Florida, and
20 WHEREAS, under authority currently being sought and
21 proposed by the Federal Government, the Federal Government
22 intends to take away community responsibility to decide what
23 organ allocation policy will be, where scarce, life-saving
24 organs will go, and who will receive them, and
25 WHEREAS, diminishing the role of the United Network for
26 Organ Sharing and increasing the direct role of the Federal
27 Government in establishing and implementing allocation policy
28 certainly has the potential to politicize such allocation
29 policy, and
30 WHEREAS, this "new federalism," in the form of the
31 proposed shift from local to federal control of the
2
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida House of Representatives - 2000 HM 857
583-191-00
1 distribution of organs for transplantation, runs counter to
2 the federal move toward devolution which states have
3 experienced over the past several years, and
4 WHEREAS, 95 percent of transplant physicians and
5 surgeons in the United States favor continuing the current
6 situation in which organ allocation policy is made by the
7 United Network of Organ Sharing, rather than by the Federal
8 Government, NOW, THEREFORE,
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10 Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
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12 That the Congress of the United States is requested to
13 block any attempt by the federal executive administration or
14 the United States Department of Health and Human Services to
15 modify existing federal regulations relating to the
16 distribution of organs donated for transplantation.
17 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
18 sent to the President of the United States, the President of
19 the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States
20 House of Representatives, and each member of the Florida
21 delegation to the United States Congress.
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