President Obama on Thursday signed a bill that ended a decades-old policy that banned organ donations from one HIV-positive person to another.
The HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act will allow organ transplants to take place between HIV-infected individuals for medical research in the hopes that the practice will eventually become more commonplace.
President Obama released the following statement on Thursday after signing the bill:
“For decades, these organ transplants have been illegal. It was even illegal to study whether they could be safe and effective. But as our understanding of HIV and effective treatments have grown, that policy has become outdated. The potential for successful organ transplants between people living with HIV has become more of a possibility.”
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, there are more than 120,000 people on the waiting list for organs; providing HIV-positive donors with another pool to receive organs from could shorten the waiting time for others on the list. However, there are others who are not in favor of the ban being lifted. The bill doesn’t sit well with all due to human error. What happens if organs are mislabeled? Or given to the wrong patient, such as one without HIV? Hospitals and doctors could face hefty fines if mistakes are made and those without HIV could unknowingly contract it.
The bipartisan bill was unanimously passed through the Senate in June after it was introduced by Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican Sen. Tom Coburn. Among the bill’s supporters were Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Mark Pryor, and Republican Sens. Rand Paul, Michael Enzi, and Mark Kirk.
“Passage of the HOPE Act will save lives and also help break down the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS,” Kevin Frost, CEO of amFAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, said in a statement following the ban being signed, “This legislation makes federal organ donation regulations more reflective of the evidence and allows for critically important research to move forward.”
