Organ donors save lives

PUBLISHER'S VIEW
By Tracie Cone

Yesterday I registered to become an organ donor, again.

Since the time I received my first driver's license at age 16, I have thought my wishes were known: In the event of my untimely death, the pink sticker means take whatever parts are functioning so that someone else might live.

As it turns out all of these decades later, the pink sticker has meant nothing. The DMV didn't put me on a national registry, it doesn't come up on my records should, heaven forbid, I die in a car accident, and it isn't legally binding.

Enter state Senators Jeff Denham and Jackie Speier, who after four years finally have succeeded in forming a statewide registry that allows Californians to sign up on-line, freeing families from making the agonizing decision while they're mourning a loss.

You can visit Donate Life California Registry at www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org or, in Spanish, www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org. Those without Internet access can go to the local YMCA and use computers there for the purpose.

At least 90,000 people in the U.S. are awaiting a life-saving organ. One-third of the 18,000 Californians on the list will die because of a lack of donors - 17 a day.

It's hard to imagine the frustrations those families feel because of antiquated notions many people still carry about the transplant process. I have a friend, an athlete, who says she won't donate because she's "afraid the recipient won't take care" of the organs like she did. Who could possibly care more for, say, a kidney, than someone who endured dialysis for years awaiting one?

One donor can save up to eight lives. A tissue donor can help 50 others heal from painful burns and other injuries.

Please register today. Like the saying goes, you can't take it with you.