US Proposes New Rules to Increase Organ Transplants

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government proposed new rules Tuesday to increase organ transplants — steps to make it easier for the living to donate and to make sure that organs from the deceased don’t go to waste.

The proposals come after President Donald Trump in July ordered a revamping of the nation’s care for kidney disease that included spurring more transplants of kidneys and other organs.

Thousands die every year while waiting for a transplant. There are many reasons for the organ shortage. An Associated Press analysis  recently found some of the groups that collect organs at death secure donors at half the rate of others — leaving behind potentially usable organs. And other studies suggest people hold off volunteering to be a living donor because they can’t afford the time off work.

Tuesday’s proposals address those two challenges. If the rules become final, they would:

The rules are open for public comment for 60 days before taking effect.

“Our broken system of procuring organs and supporting kidney donors’ costs thousands of American lives each year,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

More than 113,000 people are on the U.S. waiting list for a transplant.

It’s not clear how big an impact the new rules would have, but a 2017 study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers calculated that a better-functioning system to secure deceased donors could produce up to 28,000 more organs a year.

And people lucky enough to receive a kidney or part of a liver from a living donor not only cut years off their transplant wait, but those organs tend to survive longer. Yet fewer than 7,000 of the 36,529 transplants performed last year were from living donors.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical WriterThe Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.