STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2827

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2104

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2104 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ORGAN DONOR REGISTRY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to increase the number of potential organ donors to make more organs available for transplantation.

     Specifically this measure directs the Department of Health to contract for the establishment of an organ donor registry.  The registry will compile organ donor information into a centralized database and make this information available to family members and physicians.  The measure appropriates an unspecified amount of funds for the development of the registry.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii and the National Kidney Foundation.  Comments on this measure were submitted by the Department of Health. 

     Your Committee supports the efforts to establish a statewide organ donor registry that will allow and encourage more individuals to become organ and tissue donors.  Your Committee finds that many more people are awaiting organ transplantation in Hawaii than the number of available donor organs.  Much of this organ shortage may be overcome through increased registration of potential donors.  Currently, the predominant method of providing notice is by indicating on one's driver's license that one is willing to be an organ donor.  However, this method does not capture all of the potential organ donors.  Your Committee believes that a comprehensive organ donor registry would be an effective mechanism for providing notice to both family members and medical professionals that an individual is a potential organ donor.  By making donors' wishes more readily known, it is anticipated that the supply of donor organs will be increased, and more lives will be saved through organ transplantation. 

Your Committee acknowledges that the registry would be an open record so that a donor's family members would know their wishes.  Your Committee suggests that an online registry, where information may be accessed by registered members, will allow options beyond the current system of simply providing organ donor notice on one's driver's license.

     Your Committee further notes that an appropriation for the organ donor registry may not be required, as federal grant or private foundation funding has been applied for.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Specifying in Section 1, that the organ donor registry shall be an open record that is available to individuals who register for online registration access;

(2)  Requiring the registry to allow individuals to register as organ donors through the online system as a future option; and

(3)  Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of consistency, clarity, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2104, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2104, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair