US Federal Senate Bill SB1782

US Federal 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 6/22/26
• Introduced: 5/15/25
• Refer: 5/15/25

Caption

Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act

Summary

SB 1782, the Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act, would prohibit discrimination against individuals with mental or physical disabilities in access to organ transplants and related transplant services. The bill bars covered health care providers and transplant hospitals from denying, delaying, or refusing to refer or list a qualified individual for a transplant solely because of disability. It also directs that disability alone cannot be used to block access to transplant-related evaluation, counseling, treatment, or post-operative care. The bill defines a “qualified individual” as someone who meets transplant eligibility requirements with or without support networks, auxiliary aids and services, or reasonable modifications to policies and practices. It requires covered entities to make reasonable modifications unless doing so would fundamentally alter the service, and it clarifies that a person cannot be deemed ineligible merely because they cannot independently comply with post-transplant requirements if a support network can reasonably ensure compliance. The bill also preserves existing rights under the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Affordable Care Act, and allows complaints to be brought to HHS’s Office for Civil Rights for expedited resolution.

Impact

The bill would add a federal nondiscrimination rule governing organ transplant decisions and related services for health care providers, hospitals, transplant centers, and certain other covered entities engaged in interstate commerce. It would constrain policies or recommendations that categorically restrict transplant access based on disability, while still allowing individualized medical judgments where a disability is medically significant to the transplant outcome. The measure would apply not only to the transplant itself, but also to evaluation, listing, referral, and post-transplant treatment, and it would not override state laws that provide greater protections to individuals with disabilities.

Sentiment

The available context shows broad bipartisan sponsorship, with senators from both parties among the bill’s introducers, which suggests generally favorable sentiment toward the measure. The bill’s title and structure indicate a civil-rights framing focused on preventing disability-based exclusion from life-saving medical care. No committee transcript or recorded votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of opposition or floor debate in the supplied materials.

Contention

The main policy tension in the bill is between preventing disability discrimination and preserving clinician discretion to make individualized medical judgments. Supporters are likely to emphasize that disability alone should not bar access to transplants, while potential critics may focus on the bill’s limits on transplant-center screening criteria and the administrative burden of reasonable modifications, auxiliary aids, and support-network accommodations. The bill addresses this by allowing exceptions where a disability is medically significant to the transplant or where modifications would fundamentally alter the service or create an undue burden.