Camp: Give medals to organ donors, families

By Daily News staff

April 1, 2007

Camp, a Midland Republican, and California Democrat Pete Stark, introduced the House version of the bill.

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin and Iowa Republican introduced the Senate version.

No new federal funding would be required, according to a prepared statement.

If enacted, the law would be named the William H. Frist Gift of Life Congressional Medal Act. Frist, a physician who long introduced the bill, was the Senate majority leader when he retired from the Senate at the end of 2006.

Stark is chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, of which Camp is the ranking Republican member.

Stark said that each year, more than 5,000 people die every year while waiting for an organ transplant, and more than 100,000 people are on the waiting list for organs.

Camp called organ donation "one of the most compassionate and noble acts an individual can make."

The medal program would be coordinated by the regional organ procurement organizations and managed by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which would be responsible for financing the design, production and distribution of the medals.

The legislation reportedly is endorsed by the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, the American Society of Transplantation, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the National Kidney Foundation, the Organization of Transplant Professionals and Transplant Recipients International Organization.

This article posted April 8, 2007.

Camp: Give medals to organ donors, families

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