Lawsuit filed to halt changes to Arkansas organ donation law

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A national group facilitating organ donations has filed a lawsuit to halt changes to the Arkansas organ donation law.

Officials with Little Rock-based Southern Legacy of Life (SLL) filed a lawsuit on Thursday to halt Act 861 from going into effect. Act 861 changed the law by allowing someone with power of attorney, relatives or guardians of an organ donor to halt their organ donation.

The act also requires any organ procurement organization to report to the legislative council each year its activity level and the number of times a donation was halted under the terms of Act 861.

SLL officials said Act 861 has the potential to impact dozens of lives each year in Arkansas.

Act 861 was signed into law without an emergency clause, meaning it is due to go into effect on Aug. 5, 90 days after the legislature adjourned in full. Court records show that SLL attorneys have asked for an immediate temporary injunction to prevent the law from going into effect. 

SLL attorneys maintain the act is unconstitutional, violates federal regulations and jeopardizes public trust and lives waiting to be saved.

“Act 861 undermines donor authorization, confuses medical systems, and conflicts with federal law,” SLL CEO Mark Tudor said. “Every Arkansan who joins the donor registry deserves to have that decision respected.”

Tudor added that the act unfairly moves legal decisions to family members above decisions made by donors.

“Act 861 says their decision does not count, and incredibly, the law gives more legal protection to a family member’s decision made after death than to the donor’s own legally valid choice made during life,” he said. “This unequal treatment strips registered donors of the very rights the law grants to those who never made a decision at all. Instead of honoring and protecting a donor’s gift, the law punishes them for making a decision.”

Because of this, the law is discriminatory, Tudor said.