BILL NUMBER: S8296
SPONSOR: MARTINEZ
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the county law, in relation to eye and tissue donation
 
PURPOSE:
To ensure coroners and medical examiners throughout the state adopt
referral protocols with appropriate eye and tissue banks to increase
donations by enabling such procurement organizations to promptly identi-
fy donors and verify their suitability.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends section 671 of the county law and adds paragraph (c) to
direct coroners and medical examiners, in conjunction with appropriate
eye and tissue banks, to develop referral protocols to promptly identify
donors of anatomical gifts for deaths that fall under the coroner's or
medical examiner's jurisdiction and occur outside of a hospital. These
protocols must include requiring the coroner or medical examiner to
contact the appropriate procurement organizations for donor registry
verification and donor suitability determination.
Section 2 amends subdivision 1 of section 674-a of the county law to
include reference to the referral protocol mandated by section 671 of
the county law.
Section 3 provides the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Unlike donations of major organs, eye and tissue donations can be initi-
ated up to 24 hours after death and can be processed and stored for an
extended period of time. Various tissue may be donated, including
corneas/whole eyes, skin, bone, heart valves, tendons/ligaments and
blood vessels. In fact, one tissue donor can potentially restore the
health and heal the lives of more than 75 people. Cornea donations help
restore sight to people suffering from corneal blindness caused by
disease, injury or infection. Donated skin helps burn victims; bone can
be used in certain dental procedures, spinal. disc surgeries and bone
grafting; heart valves are used to replace damaged valves;
tendons/ligaments can be used to repair damaged ACLs; and blood vessels
are used for cardiac bypass surgeries.
Despite a federal mandate in 1998 which directed hospitals to diligently
refer all deaths occurring in a hospital to the federally designated
Organ Procurement Organization (as well as a regulatory change making
compliance with the law a requirement under the Conditions of Partic-
ipation for Medicare and Medicaid), there is no federal or NYS mandate
directing coroners and medical examiners to refer deaths to procurement
organizations. This omission creates a loophole in the referral law that
hampers referrals when deaths fall under the jurisdiction of a coroner
or medical examiner.
The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) has long held the
position that "Medical Examiners/Coroners (ME/Cs) and Organ/Tissue
Procurement Organizations (0/TP0s) should work cooperatively together
and establish prospective agreements, protocols, or memoranda of under-
standing to ensure that both parties get what is needed and that
procurement of organs and/or tissues from cases falling under MC/C
jurisdiction can be maximized." Specifically, NAME calls on ME/Cs to
"permit the recovery of organs and/or tissues from decedents falling
under their jurisdiction in virtually all cases, to include cases of
suspected child abuse, other homicides, and sudden unexpected deaths in
infants."
Despite significant advancements since 1998 to expand donor enrollment
opportunities, New York state remains far behind other states in its
rate of registry participation. As of 2023, 46% of New York's eligible
population has enrolled as organ donors, but the need for donations
calls for enrollment levels closer to 65%. Approximately 105,000 people
are currently on the national organ transplant waitlist, and 8,200 of
those people are New Yorkers. One thousand one hundred and fifty (1,150)
such New Yorkers have been on the waitlist for more than five years.
Current New York state law fails to require agreements and/or protocols
between coroners/medical examiners and procurement organizations.
Although some counties in New York state have adopted protocols with
their procurement organizations, many have not. Since a significant
proportion of potential eye and tissue donors fall within a coroner's or
medical examiner's jurisdiction, this bill will significantly increase
essential interactions between coroners/medical examiners and procure-
ment organizations, leading to an increase in the number of determi-
nations made concerning suitability for donation after death, and ulti-
mately, to an increase in the number of donations made.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S8296: 671 county law, 671(1) county law, 674-a county law, 674-a(1) county law