Now that advances in medical technology are making it easier today to perform extractions, a nonprofit group is fighting the federal government to win the right to pay donors for bone marrow.

 

Under a 1984 federal law, it is illegal for anyone to pay a donor for bone marrow. At that time marrow extraction was painful, requiring thick needles to suck out the fatty material from hip bones.

 

Today, though, two-thirds of extractions are done involving hematopoietic stem cells, which makes the procedure far easier and akin to giving blood. That’s why the nonprofit group, MoreMarrowDonors.org, wants to encourage bone marrow donations by offering scholarships, housing allowances or charitable donations to donors.

 

The organization filed a lawsuit to legally reward donors. It lost its first trial, then appealed and won a decision before a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled 3-0 that bone marrow should no longer be considered an organ for which payment is illegal under the National Organ Transplant Act.

 

The U.S. Department of Justice takes the position that paying people for bone marrow donations is an example of the rich exploiting the poor and has asked the court to reconsider its decision. If it does not, the administration may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Government Fights Court Decision That Says Bone Marrow Donors May Be Paid (by Robert Barnes, Washington Post)