Earlier this month, Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, and Katie Porter, D-California, introduced the Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act. The act will prohibit using an individual’s physical or mental disability as the sole basis of determining eligibility to be an organ transplant recipient.
The legislation is named after Charlotte Woodward, a vocal advocate against discrimination who has Down syndrome and received a heart transplant in 2012. Woodward helps clarify that doctors, hospitals, transplant centers and other health care providers are prohibited from denying access to necessary organ transplants solely on the basis of a qualified individual’s disability.
According to a news release from the National Down Syndrome Society, a Stanford University study found that 85 percent of pediatric transplant centers consider intellectual or developmental disability as a factor in their determinations of transplant eligibility at least some of the time.
“There are misconceptions that people with disabilities can’t manage the treatment needed after an organ transplant or wouldn’t benefit from such an operation — and those claims are simply not true,” Herrera Beutler said in a news release. “Charlotte Woodward is a wonderful woman with Down syndrome who is also the namesake for this legislative solution. Charlotte has been sharing her experience of successfully receiving and managing a heart transplant in order to put an end to this discrimination and help more people receive the life-saving gift of organ donation. I’m proud to introduce legislation with my colleague, Rep. Katie Porter, to ensure that people with disabilities aren’t turned away when they’re in need of life-saving organ transplant.”
