Alabama House bill would add criminal penalty to law banning organ harvesting
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, presents a bill in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 25, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama House Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved legislation that would criminalize medical examiners who retain the organs of people without family approval.
HB 383, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, to take organs without a family's permission.
This is the second year that England filed legislation pertaining that adds a criminal penalty to the practice of illegally retaining organs in the state without notifying the deceased individual's next of kin. The House Judiciary Committee approved a similar bill last year, but it stalled in the House chamber.
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The legislation is in response to a lawsuit that alleges that the Alabama Department of Corrections and the University of Alabama at Birmingham had an agreement that gave the university permission to retain the organs of those who died in prison. Families of the deceased said they were not informed of the arrangement or that their loved ones' body parts were taken without their permission..
State code already prohibits medical examiners from retaining organs unless specifically allowed by the Governor's Office, the Alabama Attorney General's Office or the district attorney in the case, but the law did not outline any sanctions.
'Basically, the warden was giving UAB permission to keep those organs in violation of a very clear prohibition,' England said to the committee during the meeting.
Montgomery Circuit Court Judge J.R. Gaines, presiding over the lawsuit, denied a motion by the University of Alabama System and the ADOC earlier this month to dismiss the case.
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