FINAL BILL REPORT

                   SB 6172

                          C 116 L 00

                      Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Allowing minors to donate bone marrow.

Sponsors:  Senators Fraser, Deccio, Thibaudeau, Prentice, T. Sheldon, Kohl‑Welles, Fairley, McAuliffe and Oke.

Senate Committee on Health & Long-Term Care

House Committee on Health Care

Background:  The National Marrow Donor Program does not permit testing people under the age of 18 to determine compatibility for bone marrow donation.  The reason cited has been that minors are not competent to provide informed consent to the medical procedures.  The age and maturity of the minor have not been sufficient exceptions to the policy, despite the fact that teenage minors can consent to certain kinds of medical care.

Attention was focused on this policy by the media when North Thurston High School sophomore Alden Tucker was refused testing to see if he was a bone marrow match for his friend Michael Penon.  Through private efforts, testing was finally performed, but he was not a match.  Michael Penon ultimately died of complications of leukemia.

Alden Tucker has not been listed on the national registry despite a recognized need for increased minority representation on the registry.  The National Marrow Donor Program indicates that most minorities who search the Registry, with its current donor pool, are less likely to find a marrow match than Caucasians.  Some estimate nearly a 40 percent difference.

Summary:  A person=s status as a minor cannot disqualify him or her from bone marrow donation.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate 480

House917

Effective:June 8, 2000