Letter to the Editor: Organ Donation Month

To the Editor:

The NYS Assembly passed a resolution to proclaim April 2014 as Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Month in the State of New York.

It is hard to believe, but New York is ranked 50th nationally in the number of eligible people enrolled in the state organ and tissue donation registry (only 22% of New Yorkers are registered as donors). There are over 10,000 New Yorkers who are currently on the donor waiting list. New York has the third highest need for donors and makes up 10% of the national waiting list. We must reverse these numbers to help save the lives of many of our friends, relatives and neighbors.

New Yorkers can help prolong another life by enrolling in the New York State Donate Life Registry (www.donatelifeny.org), which is a confidential database of individuals who can choose to donate their organs and tissues upon their death. You can join the registry through the New York State Department of Health, by enrolling online or when you apply for, or renew your New York State driver’s license, or non-driver’s license identification card, or on voter registration forms.

The organs and tissues from a single donor can help as many as 50 recipients, and during Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Month, New Yorkers are reminded of the life-sustaining results of organ and tissue donation.  I encourage you to consider this immensely generous and selfless act that extends another life.

Sincerely,