ATLANTA – State Representative Rick Williams (R-Milledgeville) today announced that he will introduce legislation, Gracie’s Law, during the 2020 legislative session to prohibit discrimination against a potential organ transplant recipient based solely on a physical or mental disability.
“Even with federal protections in place, children and adults with disabilities continue to face an unfounded amount of discrimination by the medical community,” said Rep. Williams. “For far too long, people with disabilities have been denied organ transplants based on misconceptions about their quality of life, which consequently impacts their health care. This legislation seeks to change that stigma and ultimately save lives.”
Inspired by Gracie Joy Nobles, a Georgia child with Down syndrome, Gracie’s Law would help safeguard against organ transplant discrimination for children and adults living with disabilities. Under this legislation, individuals who are candidates for an anatomical gift would not be deemed ineligible or denied insurance coverage solely based on the individual’s physical or mental disability, except to the extent that the disability has been found by a physician or surgeon to be medically significant to the provision of the anatomical gift. Additionally, if an individual cannot independently meet medical requirements after a transplant operation but has an adequate support system to assist with these requirements, the individual would not be deemed ineligible for the transplant.
Representative Rick Williams represents the citizens of District 145, which includes Baldwin County and portions of Putnam County. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2016 and currently serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and the Governmental Affairs, Higher Education, Intragovernmental Coordination, Public Safety & Homeland Security and Regulated Industries committees.
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