Issue #4 | May 14, 2024

Welcome to the Science in Donation & Transplant Newsletter!

In this issue:

1. Our Letter to the Federation of American Scientists

2. Read Our Response to NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday Interview That Put Politics Before Science

3. Join Us in Supporting Federal and State Legislation to Protect and Nurture the Non-profit Organ Donation System

SID&T Letter to Federation of American Scientists Calls Out Jennifer Erickson

On April 13, Erickson was interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, during which she claimed that the show’s host, Scott Simon, “could be recovering organs tomorrow” because “organs can be recovered by people with no clinical experience.” This is an absurd falsehood. Federal law and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons policies make Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) and transplant centers jointly accountable for ensuring that physicians and other practitioners who routinely recover hospital organs are appropriately credentialed.

Read Our Response to NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday Interview That Put Politics Before Science

However, within the organ donation and transplant community, Erickson is seen as a gadfly – a controversial figure whose ideas for reforming organ transplantation have found little support and whose tactics primarily consist of slandering the US organ transplant system – the world’s best system, which sets records every year -- as corrupt and unaccountable …There is much more good news about the US organ transplant system. Out of every 10,000 deaths in the United States, 52 of the decedent's donate at least one organ – the highest donation performance rate in the world. In Canada …

Join Us in Supporting Federal and State Legislation to Protect and Nurture the Non-profit Organ Donation System

See our legislative reform initiatives.

Who should we talk to next in the fight for fair and equitable organ donation and transplantation reform?

Science in Donation and Transplant is a non-profit established in November 2020 devoted to improving OPOs performance and placing patient results above politics.

Our goal is to ensure that the metrics and measures used to credential, license, designate and certify donation and transplant organizations are grounded in science and protected from political whim and private financial influence.

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