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Clay works in D.C. for national transplant registry
St. Louis Congressman William “Lacy” Clay is spearheading an effort to create a national organ and tissue registry. Currently, organ matching is organized at the state or regional level, but a more comprehensive approach would lead to more matches being made — and more lives being saved.
Clay’s bill is called the Everson Walls and Ron Springs Gift for Life Act. Walls and Springs are professional football players who were on the Dallas Cowboys team at the same time; Walls donated his kidney to his teammate last year.
In addition to setting up a national registry, Clay’s legislation would create a fund that would help assess the long-term health of people who have received transplants.
The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in September. Clay’s staff are working to find sponsors who will advance a companion bill in the Senate, but as yet no such bill has been filed in the Senate.
The national registry would link state registries rather than replace them. If the bill passes, a newly created National Organ and Tissue Donor Registry Resource Center would be created, and part of its role would be promoting best-practice ideas for enlisting potential donors and coordinating transplants with hospitals. The bill carries a $15 million price tag.
At an awareness-raising event at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in January, Clay said he thinks it is the kind of idea that both Democrats and Republicans will likely rally behind because. in the grand scheme of things, it is “not that controversial.”
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