Organ donation and the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.

The present organ procurement system is unable to meet the demand for transplantation. The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) is the central law in this area. It has been widely criticized and yet it has been under used in at least two respects. First, its full range of powers has neither been used nor even appreciated. Second and more important, educational efforts on its behalf are misdirected and unless altered cannot be expected to significantly increase the donor pool. Because the UAGA is consistent with the legal and ethical heritage of organ donation in the United States, attempts to correct these inefficiencies before more drastic alternatives are undertaken seem warranted.