Renowned transplant surgeon Dr. Clive Callender warns on the decision to include for-profit corporations directly into the organ donation system.
As a Black transplant surgeon with five decades of experience, I have spent my entire career fighting to improve the organ donation and transplant field in this country. I founded the National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program to increase transplant education and improve organ donation rates among minority communities. This work, which has been my lifelong passion, predates the system itself.
I also served on the Task Force on Organ Transplantation, which was established to guide the transplant system’s development after it was first formed by the National Organ Transplant Act enacted by Congress in 1984. We determined early on that the system must be led by non-profit interests, dedicated only to the needs of patients and with no concern for shareholders, market shares or profits. We made this clear to Congress in our 1986 Report of the Task Force on Organ Transplantation and they listened to us at the time. That’s why the rules, noted above, were established and why they have been in place ever since. Until now.