What is the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984? It addresses the nation’s critical organ donation shortage and to improve the organ matching and placement process. The United States Congress with President Ronald Wilson Reagan passed the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) on October 19, 1984. This act authorized the federal Department of Health and Human Services to maintain and to establish truly clear property rights for both the deceased human corpse and the living donors with regards to organ donation and transplantation. With these rights, it meant that there would be a federal ethical standard when receiving money as a motivation to donate organs and thus ensured that no one person would be able to make a profit from donating. The National Organ Transplantation Act is categorized into four titles. Title 1- Task Force on Organ Procurement and Transplantation This title states that a task force on organ transplantation, it will examine ethical as well as social and economical issues with organ transplantation, assess immunosuppressive medication, as well the efforts in obtaining organs from the deceased and look at the issues in obtaining these organs. Title 2- Organ Procurement Activities Organ Procurement Activities such as the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network was created to speed up the process of deceased organ transplantation matching. While educating the public on donating and receiving organs. Title 3- Prohibition of Organ Purchases This title deems it unlawful for anyone, who knowingly seeks to acquire or transfer a human organ for personal economic value, and the repercussions of this law are broken, can lead up to $50,000 in fines. Title 4- Miscellaneous “The Secretary of Health and Human Service shall develop and maintain a registry of bone marrow donors; the donor’s names are kept confidential and consent upheld”. The main goal of Title 3 is to keep the organs from ending up on the black market. The ethical concern for respecting human body parts or the deceased is still the utmost concern of legislators in Congress. NOTA established the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as a system or framework for organ donation. This system is in part well reputable and maintained due to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). The main goal and priority of UNOS are to maintain a system where they increase the number of transplants yearly while shrinking the waitlist. UNOS worked to improve wait-listed organ recipients and donors or matches who are donating their organs to family members or strangers. NOTA has undergone scrutiny over the last 30 years for not being progressive and taking away organ donors’ financial incentives. The main argument is that it makes it virtually impossible for elective donors to donate because they are unable to take time off from work to recover, that is why financial incentive could shrink the waiting list. Many advocates for NOTA believe UNOS is involved in making the transplantation process smoother one with fair and equal opportunity for all to participate in the process, such as the donor, recipient, and even the family members who are related. https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/6566 www.organdonor.gov