Bill Text: NJ A4793 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibits restrictions on patient receiving organ transplant based on marijuana use.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-18 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee [A4793 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-A4793-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman TIM EUSTACE
District 38 (Bergen and Passaic)
Assemblyman DANIEL R. BENSON
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Prohibits restrictions on patient receiving organ transplant based on marijuana use.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning anatomical gifts and supplementing P.L.2008, c.50 (C.26:6-77 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. An individual who is a candidate to receive an anatomical gift shall not be deemed ineligible to receive an anatomical gift solely because the individual currently uses marijuana, except to the extent that such marijuana use has been found by a physician or surgeon, following an individualized evaluation of the potential recipient, to be medically significant to the provision of the anatomical gift. In no case shall an individual who is a candidate to receive an anatomical gift be deemed ineligible to receive an anatomical gift solely because the individual formerly used marijuana. The provisions of this section shall not be deemed to require referrals or recommendations for, or the performance of, medically inappropriate organ transplants.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill prohibits restrictions on an individual receiving an anatomical gift, also known as an organ transplant, solely on the basis of marijuana use. In the case of a current marijuana user, the individual may be deemed ineligible to receive a transplant on the basis of that marijuana use only if, following an individualized evaluation, a physician or surgeon determines the marijuana use to be medically significant to the potential transplant. In no case may an organ transplant be denied solely on the basis of former marijuana use. Nothing in the bill will require referrals or recommendations for, or the performance of, medically inappropriate organ transplants.
According to recent news reports, a 20-year-old man, Riley Hancey, was denied an organ transplant by the Utah hospital where he was being treated for a severe bout of pneumonia that caused his lung to collapse. The hospital indicated the denial was based on the fact that Mr. Hancey tested positive for marijuana, and so had "unresolved substance abuse issues," even though his family confirmed that he was not a habitual drug user and in fact had used marijuana only once in the past year. Although he eventually received a double lung transplant at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Hancey subsequently died from surgery-related complications.
It is the sponsor's belief that no person should be denied essential medical care based solely on marijuana use.
