California Health and Safety Code 7151.35 – (a) No hospital, physician and surgeon, procurement …
(a) No hospital, physician and surgeon, procurement organization, or other person shall determine the ultimate recipient of an anatomical gift based upon a potential recipient’s physical or mental disability, except to the extent that the physical or mental disability has been found by a physician and surgeon, following a case-by-case evaluation of the potential recipient, to be medically significant to the provision of the anatomical gift.
(b) Subdivision (a) shall apply to each part of the organ transplant process. The organ transplant process includes, but is not limited to, all of the following:
Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 7151.35
- Anatomical gift: means a donation of all or part of a human body to take effect after the donor's death for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
- Hospital: means a facility licensed as a hospital under the law of any state or a facility operated as a hospital by the United States, a state, or a subdivision of a state. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Part: means an organ, an eye, or tissue of a human being. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Physician: means an individual authorized to practice medicine or osteopathy under the law of any state. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Procurement organization: means an eye bank, organ procurement organization, or tissue bank. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Recipient: means an individual into whose body a decedent's part has been, or is intended to be, transplanted. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
(1) The referral from a primary care provider to a specialist.
(2) The referral from a specialist to a transplant center.
(3) The evaluation of the patient for the transplant by the transplant center.
(4) The consideration of the patient for placement on the official waiting list.
(c) A person with a physical or mental disability shall not be required to demonstrate postoperative independent living abilities in order to have access to a transplant if there is evidence that the person will have sufficient, compensatory support and assistance.
(d) The court shall accord priority on its calendar and handle expeditiously any action brought to seek any remedy authorized by law for purposes of enforcing compliance with this section.
(e) This section shall not be deemed to require referrals or recommendations for, or the performance of, medically inappropriate organ transplants.
(f) As used in this section “disabilities” has the same meaning as used in the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., P.L. 101-336).
(Added by Stats. 2007, Ch. 629, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2008.)