Court Ruling Says Bone Marrow Donors May Be Compensated.

The New York Times  (12/2, B5, Pollack, Subscription Publication) reports, "A federal appeals court ruling on Thursday could make it easier for patients with diseases like leukemia to find matching bone marrow donors." The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals "said that a federal law prohibiting payment for donated organs did not apply to stem cells extracted from circulating blood."

        "A unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the marrow cells taken from a donor's blood were blood parts, not organ parts, and that a donor is therefore free to accept compensation for a donation," the Los Angeles Times  (12/2, Williams) reports. Plaintiffs of the lawsuit "sued US Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., alleging that the federal law treating bone marrow in the same way as organs that can't be regenerated violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution."

        The San Francisco Chronicle  (12/2, Colliver) reports this ruling challenges the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, which "makes compensation of selling vital organs a felony punishable by up to five years in prison." The court, "which overturned a lower court ruling, limits compensation to donors who donate marrow through a newer technology that takes the cells from the person's bloodstream rather than with a needle that extracts the cells from the hip bone."

        The AP  (12/2) reports, "MoreMarrowDonors.org brought the case, seeking to offer donors $3,000 in the form of a scholarship, housing allowance or gift to charity." Also covering the story are Reuters  (12/2, Baynes) and the Wall Street Journal  (12/2, Hobson) "Health Blog."