TISSUE BANKS: Assembly Committee Advances Regulation Bill
The Assembly Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a measure that would authorize the Department of Health Services to enforce the state's Anatomical Gift Act, which regulates the transfer of human tissue donated to tissue banks for research, the Orange County Register reports. The measure would for the first time authorize the state to decide "whether excessive amounts of money are being charged, and paid, to private companies and nonprofit banks that handle" donated tissue. Sponsored by Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-Baldwin Park), the bill also calls on the DHS to conduct a comprehensive study of disclosure and consent policies in the tissue-bank industry and to recommend whether patients with medical conditions, such as severe burns, should get priority for tissue over people having elective procedures. The full Assembly is expected to consider the measure this month (Weintraub, 5/18).
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