Delaware legislators have tabled House Bill 302, which would make the state’s organ donation system an opt-out program in an effort to increase organ donations. The bill has been in the House’s Health and Human Development Committee since Jan. 23.
Sponsored by Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf (R-14th) and Sen. George Howard Bunting (D-20th), who himself is currently on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, HB 302 would amend Chapter 27 of Title 16 of the state code relating to anatomical gifts and studies in order to move away from what the legislation’s synopsis terms as “a crisis point” for the donation of organs, tissues and other body parts.
“The donation of organs, tissue and other parts to individuals in desperate need of a transplant has reached a crisis point,” the legislation’s synopsis reads.
The act allows a person to opt-out of the organ and tissue donation process — rather than opting in, as under the current system — “thereby incorporating the large number of people who intend to participate but simply overlook the Organ and Tissue Donor Program or inadvertently failed to opt in to the current program.”
The amendment would create a process whereby an individual automatically participates in the Organ and Tissue Donor Program. But the individual could opt out of such participation at the time of applying for or renewing a driver’s license or identification card or, later, by providing the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles with a notarized letter indicating their intent to be removed from participation in the Organ and Tissue Donor Program.
Controversy surrounding the idea of an opt-out donor program and its implications on individual rights has swirled since the bill was introduced in January. There is no word on when, or whether, discussion of the bill will resume.