More Marrow Donors

Big Time Advocate

Shaka M. — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:11:10 +0000

It’s with great joy that we report on the increased education efforts surrounding marrow donation. One of the NBA’s greatest players of all time is featured in this brief clip. He is speaking on behalf of “Be The Match” – a national bone marrow registry that organizes drives and education campaigns. Check out the video and get involved. You can do that by clicking the link to the left of this post.

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Marrow compensation featured in USA Today

Shaka M. — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:24:58 +0000

Would compensation affect your decision to donate bone marrow? That’s the question asked by USA Today HERE.

That question has sparked much discussion and we’d love to hear your thoughts too so this post will be open for discussion. Regardless of how you answer the question please check out the links to the left to see how you can get involved in the all-important fight to find a match for those in need.

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Preview of Mike Hamel’s Cancer Story

Shaka M. — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:39:11 +0000

When Mike Hamel, one of the founders of MoreMarrowDonors.org, learned that he had Non Hodgkins Lymphoma he decided to document his experience for friends, family, and others interested in learning more about dealing with cancer. A committed husband, father, friend, and writer, he has blogged throughout his treatment and recovery process. Now, his story will be told in video form at Agia Sophia bookstore and coffee shop Sunday, January 31st at 7:00pm. Click HERE for the complete details.

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Liberating Bone Marrow Donors – Cato Institute

Shaka M. — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:05:05 +0000

Washington, D.C. Today, January 19, 2010 at 12:00p (EST) the Cato Institute will host a panel discussion entitled “Liberating Bone Marrow Donors.” Panelists will discuss our legal challenge and its aim of vindicating individual rights to life-saving treatments and methods. The panel features Jeff Rowes, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice, and plaintiffs’ lead counsel in Flynn v. Holder; James F. Childress, Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics and Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, University of Virginia; and Sigrid Fry-Revere, Founder and President of the Center for Ethical Solutions. Moderated by Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute.

At noon the Cato Institute will feature a live broadcast of the event. The link can be found HERE. We give our thanks to the Cato Institute for hosting an event on this important topic.

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Give Donors a Bone

Shaka M. — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:30:26 +0000

We are pleased that the issue of offering compensation for bone marrow donation has received so much attention. Most recently the NY Times carried an op-ed from Dr. John Wagner and Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Jeff Rowes on the subject. You can read the entire piece HERE. Their final sentence encapsulates why MoreMarrowDonors.org exists:

[...] people who provide life-giving marrow cells could, in good conscience, get something in return for helping save a life.

You can also read more at Open Mike.

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American Medical News highlights absurdity of law

Shaka M. — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:34:48 +0000

In an article in today’s American Medical News our lawsuit challenging the National Organ Transplant Act is discussed. As most readers are aware, the lawsuit seeks to allow our pilot program of compensating people that follow through with bone marrow transplants. Many so-called bio-ethicists worry that people receiving compensation will withhold medical information. Information that would otherwise exclude them from participation in the program.

There are multiple reasons to believe this fear is unwarranted. First, the marrow matching process is highly rigorous and existing standards that identify risk factors would still be in place if our program is allowed to move forward. Practically speaking this means that marrow donors that come forward due to the existence of our program will go through the same screening process of all others.

Second, we do not claim that our system will be a panacea. We do not claim that our program will help identify a donor for every patient in need however we believe that we can significantly increase the number of donors, especially among those with rare marrow types. Unfortunately under current law we cannot even test this idea without incurring heavy penalties. We, and patients like the ones that joined our lawsuit, should have a change to test the idea. To disallow this chance places the status quo (in which people die daily) above human life.

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Should the Gov’t Pay for Marrow?

Shaka M. — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:27:39 +0000

In a segment called “Money for Marrow” the Washington, DC NBC affiliate asks whether the government should pay marrow as a way of increasing the supply. Of course this is remarkably close to the goal of MoreMarrowDonors.org where we seek to provide small forms of compensation to bone marrow donors.

One important note is that the money used to fund our pilot program will is also donated. In our program a person (or business) can make a financial donation which will be pooled with other gifts. Once we all legal hurdles have been cleared MoreMarrowDonors.org will turn those funds into scholarships, housing allowances, and other charitable contributions that will be given to bone marrow donors.

At this point we are not seeking funds from the government and in fact believe that many people will want to help save lives through financial donation in addition to bone marrow donation.

Watch the video “Money for Marrow” below.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcwashington.com/video.

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NY Newsday Applauds Our Cause

Shaka M. — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:26:52 +0000

The Newsday editorial board features our vital cause in an article entitled “Bone Marrow Donors Should Be Compensated.” We couldn’t agree more. Click HERE for the full article and thanks for your interest in this important issue. What a wonderful Thanksgiving Day gift a life-saving bone marrow transplant would make – our goal is to increase the number of these transplants by providing various forms of compensation (including scholarships and housing allowances) to those that give marrow. We at MoreMarrowDonors.org look forward to realizing our vision.

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MoreMarrowDonors.org featured in St. Cloud Times

Shaka M. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:30:48 +0000

MoreMarrowDonors.org is featured in an article in the St. Cloud Times. The article also features co-litigant Dr. John Wagner, a leader in the field of bone marrow transplants. In the article , MoreMarrowDonors.org board member Shaka Mitchell mentions that our desire is to increase the number of matches and we think providing small forms of compensation could bring about that goal. Unfortunately, under current federal law, providing these scholarships, housing allowances, or gifts to charity is illegal. Hopefully that’s about to change.

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FoxNews Reports on Lawsuit

Shaka M. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:31:45 +0000

Last week FoxNews.com wrote about the lawsuit that MoreMarrowDonors.org joined challenging the National Organ Transplant Act. The report, while containing some inaccuracies (for instance, Mike Hamel is a lymphoma patient, not leukemia, can be found HERE. The article features opinions from Art Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately Mr. Caplan makes some assumptions about our program. Furthermore, the veracity of his assertions cannot be tested because operating even a pilot program (as is our intention) is illegal under current federal law. After we are successful in our legal challenge we look forward to testing the idea that providing various types of compensation can increase the number of successful marrow transplants.

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