Albany, NY – There’s a push underway to increase the number of potential organ donors in New York.
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Currently the state ranks last in percentage of citizens who’ve designated donations.
Although New York has a place on its drivers license to make an anatomical gift, it doesn’t require drivers to consider the question.
As a result, most of us just ignore the issue, leading to the lowest designation rate in the country.
It’s been on New York drivers licenses for a number of years now. But it’s easy to ignore. Nobody makes you consider or answer the question. “Do I want to donate my organs, should the time come and the situation present itself?”
“Yeah, it is a good idea. They should have the option to whether they want to give their organs away. It depends on how you are. Do you want to help people or you don’t,” said one woman.
Even drivers who’ve said yes in other states haven’t done so under New York’s obscure procedure.
“That’s how they do it in every other state I’ve ever lived in. In Florida they did that and I said yes and it was automatically put on the license,” said a man.
Then there are religious considerations
“I’m Orthodox Jewish. It’s a little bit against Jewish law but there is a hole because you can save so many people’s lives. There are a lot of Orthodox Jews who were leaders and did try it and they just probably have to do it in a certain way,” said another woman.
Even two of the five lawmakers holding a news conference advocating changing New York’s law had not filled in the gift designation.
If the law passes the Legislature and gets signed by the Governor, the change would be made as licenses are processed.
That means there is no significant additional cost.
It would only require that drivers answer the donation question “yes or no”. It would not require anyone to donate.
Advocates say there are 93-hundred people in the state currently waiting for organ donations.
The jewish woman quoted in the article is correct. Organ donation can provide life to so many and pikuach nefesh trumps any other consideration.
On that note, there is a Chabad father of 9 who very desperately needs a kidney. He had both his kidneys removed and on dialysis for years. VIN once had on their website a story about his needing a kidney. Nice of them to put it on.
Please contact [email protected] if you would like to help save this wonderful man’s life. None of his kids are a match. He had actually one son who was a match, but that son was killed tragically.
Respect for the dead is a mitzvah. Letting your body save lives and bring the gift of sight to the blind is an even greater one.
The biggest issue with organ donation is when they harvest the organs.
The definition of death used by those harvesting organs does not follow halacha. Many times, they take the organs from a person who is halachically still alive. They then kill the person when they remove the organs. Pikuach nefesh is not a heter for retzicha.
All those who are busy trumpeting “its muttar, pikuach nefesh is docheh” just show their vast lack of knowledge of the issue at hand.
This is why R Elyashiv says it is ssur to take organs from China, because they were killing the people for organs.
A donor that will remain alive is obviously not an issue, nor is it an issue to accept an organ after the fact. But to accede to allowing doctors to remove an organ and thereby kill a person is why there are problems with the donor program included on the license.
Pardon me for being stupid, but I was raised to believe that we return to the earth the way we came, no organ donation, no body writings (tatoos) except from the Holocaust, no autopsy. As technology and people change Rabbis change the meaning of Torah to accomadate based on WHAT and WHOM? Cars can be driven if you wear a certain helmet was one such article! I do not object per se, but what then gives the frum the right to call themselves FRUM any more? Souns like “dumbing down” to me.