{
  "id": "RL33902",
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      "date": "2010-03-25",
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      "title": "Living Organ Donation and Valuable Consideration",
      "summary": "The central issue before Congress with respect to living organ donation is how to balance the needs of people seeking organs with one another, and with the needs of potential organ donors. While the majority of organs are harvested from deceased donors, an increasing number of donations are made by living donors each year. As new types of programs are developed to help encourage the practice of living donation, both legal and ethical issues may arise.\nThe primary federal law governing organ donation in the United States is the National Organ Transplantation Act (NOTA, P.L. 98-507). It permits living and deceased organ donation, and prohibits the sale of organs. Specifically, section 301 of NOTA prohibits the exchange of valuable consideration (money or the equivalent) for organs.\nCongress specified in the Charlie W. Norwood Living Organ Donation Act (H.R. 710; S. 487; P.L. 110-144) that NOTA\u2019s prohibition on the exchange of valuable consideration for organs does not extend to paired organ donation (also known as paired donation, or human organ paired donation). Paired organ donation arises when two or more willing living donors are incompatible with their intended recipients, but compatible with one another\u2019s recipients. The donors give their organs to one another\u2019s intended recipients so that each recipient receives a compatible organ.\nLiving organ donation generally, and paired and other similar types of organ donation arrangements specifically, raise or at least touch upon a range of issues. These include some related to evolving transplantation systems, the directive that physicians do no harm, risk-benefit ratios, informed consent, type O recipients, resource allocation, parity, and the possibility of paying for organs.\nOver time, Congress has considered several other types of measures intended to increase organ donation by amending NOTA\u2019s prohibition on the exchange of organs for valuable consideration. These would have specified that some combination of familial, emotional, psychological, and physical benefit, and another type of organ exchange known as list donation, were exempt from the prohibition. The impact, if any, of P.L. 110-144 on the legality of these exchanges is unclear.\nThis report contains background regarding how living donation is included within the larger organ donation construct, the likely impact that paired organ donation will have, and that list donation programs would have, on organ supply, the legislative history and legal interpretation of the term valuable consideration as it is defined by NOTA, and the various ethical and policy issues related to living donation, paired donation and list donation.\nThis report will be updated as needed.",
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      "id": "RL33902_2007Mar08",
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