Lawmakers on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee have unanimously approved legislation that would end the practice of denying organ transplants to individuals based on their disabilities, marking a significant step toward ensuring equal access to life-saving care.
The bill, named after Charlotte Woodward—a woman with Down syndrome who received a heart transplant in 2012—would prohibit organ procurement organizations and transplant centers from using a patient's physical or intellectual disability as grounds for denial. It explicitly bars discrimination on the basis of disability, rather than legitimate medical reasons why a patient might not respond to treatment.
Disability Discrimination in Organ Transplants
Advocates point to a 2019 report by the National Council on Disability, which found that a majority of transplant centers had serious reservations about performing kidney transplants on individuals with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. The report also revealed that 43 percent of pediatric transplant centers always or usually consider intellectual disabilities a contraindication, often based on false assumptions about patients' ability to self-care or stereotypes about their quality of life.
Mary Vought, a disability advocate and former Trump appointee on the National Council on Disability, wrote that the data is stark: only 52 percent of patients with disabilities who requested a referral for an organ transplant evaluation actually received one, and more than a third of those suggested for a transplant never even got an evaluation.
“As the mother of a child with cystic fibrosis, I understand the anguish that families face when access to a transplant becomes the difference between life and death,” Vought said. She called the discrimination “outrageous.”
Legislative Details and Bipartisan Support
The bill, introduced by Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) and Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), has drawn bipartisan co-sponsorship from 21 senators and 28 representatives. It mirrors a version the House passed last June. The Senate measure requires transplant centers to make “reasonable modifications” to accommodate patients’ disabilities, unless those modifications would fundamentally alter operations or create an undue burden—language similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The legislation now heads to the full Senate, where supporters hope for swift passage. Differences between the House and Senate versions are expected to be minor, and advocates are optimistic the bill will reach President Trump’s desk.
Woodward herself has thrived since her 2012 transplant, graduating summa cum laude from George Mason University—a milestone for someone doctors once said would never learn to read. She now works for the National Down Syndrome Society, advocating for the bill that bears her name.
“In so doing, they would reiterate the value of all human life, and ensure that more individuals with disabilities will live long enough to reach their full potential,” Vought wrote.
