(a) No hospital, physician and surgeon, procurement organization, or other person shall determine the ultimate recipient of an anatomical gift based upon a potential recipient’s physical or mental disability, except to the extent that the physical or mental disability has been found by a physician and surgeon, following a case-by-case evaluation of the potential recipient, to be medically significant to the provision of the anatomical gift.
(b) Subdivision (a) shall apply to each part of the organ transplant process. The organ transplant process includes, but is not limited to, all of the following:
(1) The referral from a primary care provider to a specialist.
(2) The referral from a specialist to a transplant center.
(3) The evaluation of the patient for the transplant by the transplant center.
(4) The consideration of the patient for placement on the official waiting list.
(c) A person with a physical or mental disability shall not be required to demonstrate postoperative independent living abilities in order to have access to a transplant if there is evidence that the person will have sufficient, compensatory support and assistance.
(d) The court shall accord priority on its calendar and handle expeditiously any action brought to seek any remedy authorized by law for purposes of enforcing compliance with this section.
(e) This section shall not be deemed to require referrals or recommendations for, or the performance of, medically inappropriate organ transplants.
(f) As used in this section “disabilities” has the same meaning as used in the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12101 et seq., P.L. 101-336).
(Added by Stats. 2007, Ch. 629, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2008.)