Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces Legislation to Increase Organ Donation Opportunities

Bill Would Create First-in-the-Nation Living Donor Registry

For Release: March 19, 2010

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today joined Apple Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs and Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto to announce the introduction of SB 1395, legislation that will make it easier for Californians to affirm their preferred organ donor status. Authored by Senator Alquist, the bill will also create the nation’s first living donor registry for kidney transplants –the California Living Donor Registry – to better connect those who want to donate with those in need of a transplant.

“Organ donation is one of the kindest, most generous and powerful actions that each and every one of us can take. With thousands of people in California and throughout the nation currently waiting for a transplant, this legislation represents a new and important resource to increase donor rates,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “I am excited to partner with the legislature to implement this life-saving legislation and make California a leader in organ donations.” There are more than 100,000 individuals currently waiting for an organ transplant in the U.S., including more than 21,000 Californians. California residents are already a strong donor force, with over 6 million individuals currently registered, and this legislation will improve their ability to give. SB 1395 will implement a system in which Californians will have the opportunity to choose between registering to be an organ donor or considering registration at another time. This choice would be made by answering a mandated question through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) driver license application/renewal or state ID card application process.

The California Living Donor Registry will help facilitate connecting those who want to donate a kidney with those in need of a transplant. There would be three types of donation:

• Direct donation, where a living donor would provide an organ for a known transplant candidate, such as a mother donating a kidney to her daughter.
  
• Paired exchanges, where the registry would assist a donor and a transplant candidate who are medically incompatible with another pair facing the same problem. For example, if a mother wants to donate a kidney to her daughter but is medically incompatible, the registry will help find another pair facing the same problem. In this case, the donor in the first pair would donate to the transplant candidate in the second pair and vice versa.
  
• Non-directed donation, where a donor does not have a specific recipient identified and donates to any recipient that is a good medical match. This practice has been growing in recent years, and this legislation will help accelerate it to potentially save countless lives.

Governor Schwarzenegger has signed significant legislation related to organ donation since he came into office:

• In September 2004, the Governor signed AB 2445 by Assemblymember Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg) that created the Advanced Health Care Directive Registry at the Secretary of State. An advance health care directive lets your physician, family and friends know your health care preferences, including the types of special treatment you want or don't want at the end of life, your desire for diagnostic testing, surgical procedures, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and organ donation.
  
• In October 2005, the Governor signed SB 689 by Senator Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) that established the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA), which required the DMV to collect organ tissue donor designation information on its application for driver licenses and identification cards.
  
• In October 2007, the Governor signed AB 1689 by Assemblymember Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View) that revised the UAGA to allow anatomical gifts to be used for transplantation, research, therapy and education. The revised UAGA regulates gifts and disposition of donated bodies and body parts.