Bill would ban 'heartless' discrimination against people with disabilities who need organs

• A bill from Sens. Marco Rubio and Maggie Hassan addresses discrimination in organ transplants.
• Right now, only some states have laws to protect people with disabilities who need organs.
• A federal network has managed most organ donations since 1984.

The questions resurfaced for Kathleen Kirwan when she began treatment for kidney disease at the same Texas clinic where her brother labored through three years of dialysis before his death in 2015.

She replayed Daniel Kirwan’s 20 years of treatment in her mind – the renal failure, the medications that caused it, the countless catheter changes, the conversations with doctors. She wondered again: Why wasn’t he ever placed on a transplant list?

The answer, she said she believes, was her brother’s disability. Daniel Kirwan had Down syndrome.

“It was just kind of like old school that doctors used to believe that those with intellectual disabilities aren’t valued as much as other people,” she told USA TODAY. “I will tell you that it always did not sit right with me.”

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