The gap between available human organs and patients who need them remains discouragingly wide in the United States.
More than 94,000 Americans are on waiting lists, and 7,000 die each year awaiting a transplant that will never come. In Colorado and Wyoming last year, 115 donors provided 343 organs. But 1,700 people remain on waiting lists in our region.
Educational campaigns and techniques like noting donor status on driver’s licenses haven’t closed the gap between donors and those who need organs. In an effort to do so, donation groups are pushing for a nationwide update of the state laws that govern donations. It’s a worthwhile effort.
The first uniform donor laws were adopted by every state in 1968. But only half the states adopted a 1987 update that explicitly banned sale of organs, gave a donor’s explicit wishes precedence over those of survivors and streamlined donation paperwork.
In the 20 years since, there has been further splintering of state laws, a problem proponents hope to solve with the 2006 Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. The Colorado version of that, House Bill 1266, has passed the House and awaits Senate consideration.
Key provisions include protecting a donor’s wishes from family veto after death, making it easier for a majority of survivors to approve donations if the deceased wasn’t a self-designated donor, and strengthening communication between coroners and the groups that gather organs for transplant.
Sue Dunn, president of the Donor Alliance, says she hopes that making it easier for a majority of family members to approve donations and formalizing relations with county coroners will increase the number of life-saving organ donations. (The alliance is the government-recognized organ recovery organization for Colorado and most of Wyoming. The group handles the donations of hearts, livers, lungs, kidneys, pancreases and small intestines, as well as various tissues.)
Dunn acknowledges the challenge of increasing the number of donors and said the most effective approach has been creation of centralized donor registries. Colorado and Wyoming did this in 2001, but nationwide only about half the states have them. The proposed uniform act encourages creation of registries, and we hope other states will take that step.
And we urge the Colorado legislature to pass the uniform law. Any steps to standardize the donation system and increase organ donations, even modestly, are vital to those who wait for the gift of life.
If you choose to help, go to coloradodonorregistry.org to register as a donor, or do so next time you renew your driver’s license.
