Relating to the blood, bone marrow, and living organ donation incentive program

This bill amends the provisions of the bone marrow and vascular organ donation incentive program to instead provide for a blood, bone marrow, and living organ donation incentive program. The bill defines “blood” and “living organ” for the purposes of the bill. The bill amends the provisions relating to a state employee requesting and being granted a leave of absence to serve as a vascular organ donor to instead serve as a living organ donor. Current law provides for the granting of a leave of absence for a state employee to serve as a vascular organ donor. A “vascular organ” is currently defined as a heart, lung, liver, pancreas, kidney, intestine, or other organ that requires the continuous circulation of blood to remain useful for purposes of transplantation. Under the bill, “living organ” is defined as one of two kidneys, one of two lobes of a liver, a lung or part of a lung, part of the pancreas, or part of the intestines. The bill also includes new provisions to allow for a state employee to be granted a leave of absence of up to two consecutive hours in a workday if the employee requests a leave of absence to serve as a voluntary blood donor and the employee provides written verification from the employee’s physician or the facility involved with the blood donation that the employee will serve as a voluntary blood donor. An employee may submit a request for a leave of absence to serve as a voluntary blood donor no more than four times in a year.