The House Ways and Means Committee is demanding the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network explain itself after nearly a dozen whistleblowers accused the nonprofit of serious medical ethics violations, including attempting to harvest organs from a person who was showing signs of life.
In a Wednesday letter to NJTO CEO Carolyn Welsh, committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chair David Schweikert, R-Ariz., outlined the allegations made against the organ procurement agency and requested documents and transcribed interviews with more than 30 employees and executives.
Following reports of widespread industry corruption, the House committee put out a public request for information in April.
NJTO whistleblowers responded with allegations of organ harvesting without patient consent; improper organ allocation practices, including quid-pro-quo arrangements, that led to patient deaths; and document destruction and data manipulation.
In their letter, Smith and Schweikert highlighted the circumstances of a case at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, in which an NJTO executive allegedly told staffers to proceed with harvesting organs from a patient who "reanimated" after being pronounced dead.
Hospital staff refused to continue with the procurement effort, and the organs were not recovered.
"Several whistleblowers have alleged that documentation regarding this case has been deleted or otherwise manipulated," the committee's letter stated. "The Committee is also aware that on or around July 13, 2025, NJTO email servers were taken down before the emails related to this [donation after circulatory death] case were deleted."
Addressing Welsh, the federal lawmakers wrote, "It is the Committee's understanding not only that the NJTO staff on site continued to pressure the hospital staff to proceed with the donation, but also that you were the individual who made the decision to continue with the process of donation with knowledge of the donor's reanimation."
The letter added, "The Committee further understands that you — someone with no clinical training — decided to proceed from outside of the hospital, even while the hospital staff on site shared concerns about your decision."
The letter also indicated that the panel had been made aware of whistleblower accusations that Welsh "created a culture of fear and retaliation within your organization."
Newsmax reached out to NJTO for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
The committee set a Dec. 3 deadline for NJTO to respond and warned that subpoenas would be issued if the organization failed to comply with its request for information.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.