[Ip-health] Cato Institute Policy Forum: on Jan. 19 Liberating Bone Marrow Donors

[Joana Ramos]

FYI.

If anyone is interested in discussing this lawsuit in the context of the
US federal blood & marrow transplantation program, and current BMT
services in broader healthcare systems including global issues, pls.
contact me off list.

I also invite you to visit BMTBasics.org, a website I created in 2007 ,
for more background, including examination of equity issues in the field.

Joana Ramos

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The Cato Institute invites you to a Policy Forum

Liberating Bone Marrow Donors

featuring
Jeff Rowes
Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice, and plaintiffs' lead counsel in
Flynn v. Holder

James F. Childress
Professor of Medical Education, University of Virginia and Co-Director,
Virginia Health Policy Center

and
Sigrid Fry-Revere
Founder and President of the Center for Ethical Solutions

moderated by
Ilya Shapiro
Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute

Deadly blood diseases kill more than 1,000 Americans every year, many of
whom could be saved by finding matching bone marrow donors. The human
body regenerates bone marrow=97donors are whole again in just a few weeks
after donation=97so why are so many lives lost for lack of marrow?

The answer lies in the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, which
prohibits the compensation of bone marrow donors and stymies a market
response to the demand for this renewable resource. Enacted to curtail a
black market in nonrenewable solid organs (such as lungs and kidneys),
NOTA provides for up to five years' imprisonment for anyone involved in
a compensated donation=97including doctors, nurses, patients, and donors.
NOTA's prohibitions, while not covering other renewable cells such as
blood (for which compensated donation is legal), do extend to bone
marrow, creating the dire shortage of marrow donors.

The Institute for Justice has filed a lawsuit to challenge NOTA's
application to bone marrow. IJ represents Donna Flynn, a single mother
of five children, three of whom suffer from a deadly disease that often
requires marrow transplants. Flynn's urgent situation and the lawsuit
filed on her behalf present an opportunity to reexamine NOTA and
prohibitions on compensating renewable-cell donation in general. What
are the benefits of such restrictions? If compensation is permitted in
some form, how would the new donation system work and what would be the
federal government's role, if any?


Tuesday, January 19, 2010
12:00 p.m.
(Luncheon to follow)

Cato Policy Forums and luncheons are free of charge.
To register, visit www.cato.org, fax (202) 371-0841,
or call (202) 789-5229 by 12:00 p.m. Friday, January 15.
News media inquiries only (no registrations), please call (202) 789-5200.
If you can't make it to the Cato Institute, watch this Forum live online
at www.cato.org.



-------------------
Joana Ramos, MSW
Cancer Resources & Advocacy
Seattle WA USA
+1-206-229-2420
http://ramoslink.info/
www.bmtbasics.org