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Organ
donors by default
Colorado
bill is a smart move
DENVER – Some Colorado lawmakers
say their state should be the first one where people become
organ donors by default, even though other states' efforts have been
halted by worries about making
such a personal decision automatic.
Colorado's proposal, introduced in the Legislature last week, would
change the process for renewing
driver's licenses and ID cards so applicants are assumed to be organ
and tissue donors unless they
initial a statement that says they want to opt out.
The "presumed consent" system is common in Europe and is credited with
dramatically raising donation rates.
In the U.S., however, similar approaches have been defeated by
lawmakers in at least three states
— Delaware, Illinois and New York — because of concerns that donation
programs seem coercive
if they require residents to say no.
Organ donation advocates hope for a warmer reception in Colorado, where
nearly two-thirds of people
carrying driver's licenses or state-issued IDs volunteer as donors — a
higher rate than in any other state.
One of the bill's sponsors, Democratic Rep. Daniel Pabon of Denver,
said the change would simply
make it easier for people already willing to donate their organs when
they die. The current system
relies on Division of Motor Vehicles employees to ask each person who
applies for a license or ID.
"This takes a bunch of people who otherwise might donate but just get
in the DMV and don't want
to stand in line, or they forget, and this makes it easier," said
Pabon, whose uncle received a liver
transplant after three years on a waiting list in Iowa.
It's just flat-out crazy to have thousands of people who need a transplant die each year
while millions of useable organs are put into the ground for no logical reason.
Why do people hesitate to donate their organs? Because America is 80% religiously insane and
people worry that they'll need their organs when they get to Heaven which is 100% stupid.
They should take it step further and make you spend a full day at the DMV to opt out.