Overview

The gift of a human organ for transplant is a uniquely precious gift. It is the most personal and sensitive gift a person can make, and it is literally a gift of life, from the donor to the desperately ill recipient.  Needless to say, these gifts must be recovered with maximum sensitivity, discretion and skill and never for profit. 

The nation’s long-standing community based non-profit organ procurement system, the envy of the world, is under assault from private forces and profiteers.  It must be protected.

Model State Legislation

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, sell, promote the transfer of, or otherwise transfer any human organ, for purposes of transplantation, for valuable consideration.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, sell or facilitate the transfer for valuable consideration of any personally identifiable information concerning a person, or the survivors of a person whose organs have been offered or donated pursuant to [Revised Anatomical Gift Act of this State] if such information was created, gathered, assembled, utilized or disseminated for the purpose of facilitating the person’s anatomical gift or potential anatomical gift.

(c) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Human organ” includes, but is not limited to, a human kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, or any other human organ or nonrenewable or nonregenerative tissue except plasma and sperm.

(2) “Valuable consideration” means financial gain or advantage, but does not include the reasonable costs associated with the removal, storage, transportation, and transplantation of a human organ, or reimbursement for those services, or the expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the living donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ.

(d) No act respecting the non-sale donation of organs or other non-sale conduct pursuant to or in the furtherance of the purposes of the [Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act] including acts pursuant to anatomical gifts offered under [organ donor registry law] shall be made unlawful by this section.

(e) This section shall not apply to the person from whom the organ is removed, nor to the person who receives the transplant, or those persons' next-of-kin who assisted in obtaining the organ for purposes of transplantations.

(g) Any person who violates subdivision (a) or (b) shall be punished by a fine not to exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), or by imprisonment for three, four, or five years, or by both that fine and imprisonment.