Illinois OKs HIV-infected organ donation
Thursday, July 15, 2004 Posted: 7:09 PM EDT (2309 GMT)
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Illinois on Thursday became the first state with a law specifically allowing HIV-infected people to donate organs to others with the virus. But before such donations can take place, federal rules will have to change.
Currently, organs from HIV-infected patients are discarded to prevent them from being transplanted into uninfected patients and spreading the AIDS virus.
But those organs could prolong the lives of people who already have HIV, many of whom are living longer because of advances in medicine, said Dr. Patrick Lynch, a liver specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital who helped write the legislation signed Thursday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
"When those laws were originally put on the books, they made sense. HIV was, unfortunately, a death sentence back then," Lynch said. "That doesn't make sense anymore."
HIV patients in need of a transplant have to wait, along with other patients, for organs from healthy donors.
Futher reading: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/conditions/07/15/hiv.organs.ap/index.html
-----
also came across this article -- what are ur thoughts to this qq
Thursday, July 15, 2004 Posted: 7:09 PM EDT (2309 GMT)
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Illinois on Thursday became the first state with a law specifically allowing HIV-infected people to donate organs to others with the virus. But before such donations can take place, federal rules will have to change.
Currently, organs from HIV-infected patients are discarded to prevent them from being transplanted into uninfected patients and spreading the AIDS virus.
But those organs could prolong the lives of people who already have HIV, many of whom are living longer because of advances in medicine, said Dr. Patrick Lynch, a liver specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital who helped write the legislation signed Thursday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
"When those laws were originally put on the books, they made sense. HIV was, unfortunately, a death sentence back then," Lynch said. "That doesn't make sense anymore."
HIV patients in need of a transplant have to wait, along with other patients, for organs from healthy donors.
Futher reading: http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/conditions/07/15/hiv.organs.ap/index.html
-----
also came across this article -- what are ur thoughts to this qq
