LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Who has the right to make the final decision about organ donation?

In Arkansas, that question will likely be answered next month when a final ruling is made on Arkansas Act 861.

It’s a law that was sponsored by Rep. Matthew Brown (R-Conway), who told the story of communicating with an organ collection agency as his father was dying.

“She says, among other things, and I quote, ‘Don’t you think you ought to honor your father’s wishes to be an organ donor?” Brown remembered. “As I’m sitting by my dying daddy’s bedside, with my mother sobbing, and my sisters sobbing.”

According to Brown, the agency told him he had to wait to pull the plug on his dying father until they had determined which of his organs might be able to be harvested.

Act 861 would provide changes to th

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