Organ donor network manager can't dodge racial discrimination lawsuits

By Diana Novak Jones

CHICAGO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The non-profit that manages the organ transplant system in the U.S. can’t escape claims it discriminated against Black people seeking kidney transplants, a Boston federal judge has ruled.

In a ruling late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani largely rejected the United Network for Organ Sharing’s bid to dismiss two lawsuits accusing the group of using a race-based and unscientific calculation that requires Black people with kidney failure to be sicker than patients of other races before they could receive a transplant.

The judge said plaintiffs Deon Santos and Mark Thompson had done enough to allow their racial discrimination claims against UNOS to move forward, saying in part their allegations that UNOS had allowed and encouraged hospitals to calculate Black people's kidney function based on their race constituted racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Representatives for UNOS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The country's Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network was created by federal law in 1984. It required that a registry to match organs to patients be established, and directed that a non-profit operate it. UNOS has been the operating non-profit since 1986.

The organ transplantation system in the country has come under scrutiny in recent years over concerns about mismanagement, and in July the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it had launched a reform of the system after a probe found premature attempts to start organ retrieval while patients showed signs of life.

Santos and Thompson, who are each suing UNOS and the hospitals where they received treatment, are among at least 10 people who have filed lawsuits against the network over similar claims related to kidney transplants in courts across the country since 2023.

The patients allege that their kidney transplants were unfairly delayed or they were unable to get on the transplant eligibility list because of the calculation used by UNOS and medical providers.

UNOS has argued in court filings that it could not have discriminated against the patients because transplant hospitals calculate patients’ kidney function values and UNOS' policy on kidney transplants did not mention this calculation prior to 2022.

In July 2022, the organ network said it was requiring transplant hospitals to stop using the race-adjusted calculation, which was first used in the 1990s, noting that it could result in longer wait times for some people seeking kidney transplants.

Although her ruling Wednesday allowed the majority of Santos and Thompson’s claims, Talwani dismissed their requests for an injunction barring UNOS from engaging in the racially discriminatory practices their lawsuits allege after noting that UNOS barred the use of the race-based calculation in 2022.

The lawsuits are Deon Santos v. United Network for Organ Sharing et al, case number 1:24-cv-11692, and Mark Thompson v. United Network for Organ Sharing et al, case number 1:24-cv-11693, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

For Santos and Thompson: Jeffrey Catalano of Keches Law Group; Matthew Venezia and George Laiolo of Ellis George

For UNOS: Katherine Perrelli and Dallin Wilson of Seyfarth Shaw; and Dan Blouin and Thomas Weber of Winston & Strawn