Denying Life: The Reality of Disability-Based Discrimination in Organ Transplant

Denying Life: The Reality of Disability-Based Discrimination in organ Transplant. The image is divided into four sections. The first section has a square box with key stakeholders for organ transplants with diagram. The top is United Network of Organ Sharing and underneath that is Organ transplant Centers/Hospitals and Organ Procurement Organizations. Underneith Organ Transplant Centers/Hospitals is transplant Coordinators and Transplant Surgeons. Underneith both of those is the patient National wait list. Under Organ Procurement Organizations is recruit new organs and Coordinate organ donation process. The next section has texts that reads: 
-over 100,000 people are currently on the organ transplant waitlist. 
-From 2010-2019, while 33 organs were collected from deceased donors at VA hospitals, 5,281 eligible donors were overlooked. 
- UNOS has ZERO obligation to disclose their criteria for waitlist eligibility
The next section has text that reads: 
Systemic Discrimination People with Disabilities Face in Obtaining an Organ Transplant
- Healthcare providers unjustly withhold referrals for transplant evaluations, prejudging disabled patients' suitability based on misconceptions about their disability and its impact on transplant success
Transplant Coordinators and Transplant Surgeons often deny based off of "low quality of life' values. Quality of life values are based off of stigma surrounding what it must mean to live with a disability. 
- Both UNOS and OPTN have recently faced significant scrutiny for perpetuating policies that are not only racist and unethical, but fundamentally ableist, reflecting deep-seated biases in the system's treatment of patients based on race and disability
racial and ableist prejudices often skew eligibility assessments and priority rankings, leading to systemic denial. 
Recommendations Section
OPTN and UNOS must implement comprehensive measures to ensure equitable access for disabled individuals. This includes: 
- Expanding the Equity in Access Dashboard to incorporate and highlight disability-related data explicitly
Ensuring Data collection, transparency and enforcement mechanisms are in place to identify and address disparities. 
- Mandating clear, justifiable explanations for denials of referrals, evaluations, or waitlist admissions for individuals, particularly focusing on preventing discrimination based on disability
The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality

The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality identified organ transplantation as a critical area for addressing ableism, issuing the below  recommendations to address discrimination  in the organ transplantation process.

Easy Read Version- Recommendations to Increase Access in Organ Transplantations for People with Disabilities. September 2022. Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities logo
Image of a cooler with text that reads: Human Organ for Transplant being carried by a healthcare professional. Text Reads: Recommendations to Increase Access in Organ Transplantation for People with Disabilities

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