BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1419 (Galgiani) - Uniform Anatomical Gift Act: prison
inmates
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|Version: April 13, 2016 |Policy Vote: HEALTH 7 - 0, PUB. |
| | S. 5 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 23, 2016 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 1419 would require the Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation to allow an inmate to make an anatomical gift
in the event of his or her death.
Fiscal
Impact: Ongoing costs of about $200,000 per year for the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide training
to medical staff (General Fund). The Department would need to
provide training to licensed vocational nurses, so that they
could provide the forms to inmates during initial medical
screening and answer questions that inmates may have about the
form and their rights under the law.
Background: Under current practice, newly admitted inmates to state
prisons are given an initial health screening and then a
comprehensive medical evaluation.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation currently has a
SB 1419 (Galgiani) Page 1 of
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policy in place regarding advanced health care directives.
Advanced health care directives allow patients (including
inmates) to make decisions about future health care services
that they wish to receive. Under the advanced health care
directive used by the Department, inmates can give someone the
power of attorney (in order to make health care decisions on the
inmates behalf) and to specify the types of medical treatment
that the inmate does and does not want. The advanced health care
directive form used by the Department also includes the option
for an inmate to indicate whether he or she wishes to donate
organs or tissues upon death and to specify which organs may be
donated. The Department provides advanced health care directive
forms to any inmate who requests one and to any inmate who is
facing a life threatening condition or medical treatment.
Proposed Law:
SB 1419 would require the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation to allow an inmate to make an anatomical gift in
the event of his or her death.
Specific provisions of the bill would:
Require the Department to develop a form to allow an
inmate to make an anatomical gift in the event of the
inmates death;
Require the form to be held in the inmate's central
file;
Specify the information to be contained on the form;
Require the form to be presented to inmates upon first
admittance to the state prison system;
Require the form to be made available to inmates upon
request;
Authorize an inmate to revoke his or her election to
make an anatomical gift.
Staff
Comments: In any given year, a very small proportion of state
prison inmates die in prison. For example, in 2010 about 250
inmates died out of an institutional population of about
150,000.
Under current Department policy, any inmate can request an
advanced health care directive which allows the inmate to elect
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to make an anatomical gift (i.e. organ donation). In addition,
the Department provides advanced health care directive forms to
inmates facing a life threatening illness or medical treatment
(e.g. a surgery).
Given that those inmates most likely to die in prison are given
access to an advanced health care directory, it does not seem
likely that providing an organ donation form to every inmate in
the state prison system will substantially increase organ
donation in the state.
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