Steve Jobs appeared at the unveiling of draft organ-donation legislation in California Friday where the Apple CEO was instrumental in getting state lawmakers to create SB 1395, a law which, if passed, will require Californians applying for or renewing driver’s licenses to answer whether they’d like to donate their organs in case of death. According the Mercury News, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at the event and thanked Steve Jobs for his efforts:
Steve Jobs’ was very instrumental in getting us here today,” said the governor. “Steve Jobs told my wife about his transplant and she talked to me. Then we had great phone conversations back and forth. … He knew that others don’t have a plane waiting for them to get to a transplant.”
Jobs said, “There were not enough livers in California to go around. I was advised by my Stanford doctors to enroll on a list at a Memphis hospital, because it was more favorable to get a liver there.
“I was fortunate,” he said because he had the ability to fly cross country in the four-hour window needed to transplant a healthy organ. “Last year, 400 other Californians died waiting. I could have died.”
He called current system “an obscure process” with “no one asking the simple question: Will you donate your organs?”
Of his current health, the whippet-thin Jobs told other transplant survivors who attended the Friday news conference, “I’m feeling fine. I almost died. It’s been a pretty good last few months.”
Your story about Organ Donation Legislation in California highlighted the tragic shortage of human organs for transplant operations.
Over 50% of the people on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate 20,000 transplantable organs every year.
There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage – give donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren’t willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition. LifeSharers has over 13,600 members at this writing.
Please contact me – Dave Undis, Executive Director of LifeSharers – if your readers would like to learn more about our innovative approach to increasing the number of organ donors. I can arrange interviews with some of our local members if you’re interested. My email address is daveundis@lifesharers.org. My phone number is 615-351-8622.