The Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act Protecting the Dignity of Donors and Offering Peace of Mind to Families With the introduction of the Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act (S. 2191/H.R. 4275), Congress took a vital step toward bringing necessary minimum standards to the largely unregulated process of wholebody donation. The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) thanks Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX) for introducing this important legislation. “NFDA fully supports and applauds congressional efforts to pass the Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act, which will provide long-overdue accountability and transparency to the whole-body donation process and ensure donors’ bodies are treated with dignity and respect at all times,” said NFDA Senior Vice President, Advocacy, Lesley Witter, MPA, CAE. Donating the body of a loved one to medical research can bring healing and comfort to a family, knowing that their gift may help advance scientific knowledge and discoveries. However, unscrupulous body brokers, who often aggressively target the poor and elderly, take advantage of this generosity and sell or lease bodies and body parts at a significant profit. “Non-transplant tissue banks that accept whole body donations need to be better regulated,” said NFDA President Jack Mitchell, CFSP, CCSP. “There are regulations that govern how the body of an individual may be donated, but there is little federal or state oversight over what happens to that donation. This means that anyone, regardless of expertise, can set up a facility and dissect and sell or lease human bodies and body parts to anyone. The money that can be made by body brokers is significant and has led to bad actors taking advantage of the generosity of donor families by desecrating the bodies of their loved ones. We encourage Congress to pass the Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act.” The Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act would provide the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) with oversight of entities that deal with human bodies and non-transplantable body parts donated for education, research, and the advancement of medical, dental and mortuary science. The bill, among other things, also requires non-transplant tissue banks to be registered with the U.S. Department of HHS. This gives HHS the authority to conduct inspections, requires informed consent when a donation is made, creates a clear chain of custody for each human body or body part, ensures shipments of human bodies and body parts are properly labeled and packaged, and ensures the respectful and proper disposition of donated bodies and body parts. Additionally, the Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act establishes penalties for violations. 24 | Directors Digest
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTg3NDExNQ==