Thursday, February 03, 2005

Not all slopes are slippery

The Dallas Morning News published a story yesterday about LifeSharers.

The story quotes Pam Silvestri, a persistent critic of LifeSharers. She works for the Southwest Transplant Alliance, the organ procurement organization that services the Dallas area. She says LifeSharers is a "slippery slope" because if LifeSharers succeeds, "what's to stop dozens of lists from being created that allow special access based on other agendas ... race, religion, etc.?"

Some slopes aren't slippery, and this is one of them. Giving organs first to Hispanics doesn't produce more Hispanics, and giving organs first to Catholics doesn't produce more Catholics. But giving organs first to organ donors produces more organ donors, and that saves lives. That's the whole idea behind LifeSharers.

Besides, is it necessarily a bad thing for organ donors to give special access to members of their own race or religion? If it produces more organ donors and saves more lives, I say it's a good thing.

Ms. Silvestri also says LifeSharers won't work. She says it isn't practical for a LifeSharers member to offer their organs to a fellow member "because the organs might not match anyone in the LifeSharers group...and the small number of people in that group likely won't ever be in a position to donate. And even if they were, it is unlikely that the others in the group will be on the wait list for an organ."

Ms. Silvestri misses the point. It is possible that a member's organs won't be a good match for any other member, but the odds of that go down every time we get a new member. She is also misinformed. We already have 21 members "on the wait list for an organ" and statistically it's a virtual certainty that sooner or later a LifeSharers member will "be in a position to donate."

Ms. Silvestri and her colleagues at the OPOs around the country should be helping LifeSharers, not criticizing us. We recruit organ donors. That helps the OPOs. It also helps save lives. Isn't that what the OPOs are in business to do?

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Who is Pam Silvestri to determine how someone else may want to donate their organs or even who they want them to be donated too??? Why do people like Pam Silvestri think they can decide for someone else on what they want and how they want it to be done???

In this article LifeSharers makes an awesome point that she obviously doesn't hear or even care about. The statement from LifeShareres that I am refering to is, "Giving organs first to Hispanics doesn't produce more Hispanics, and giving organs first to Catholics doesn't produce more Catholics. But giving organs first to organ donors produces more organ donors, and that saves lives". I would rather give my organs to someone that will be giving their organs too rather than give them to someone who doesn't want to. I persoanlly have been researching this subject for a long time now and I am going to sign up with LifeSharers because I believe in what they are doing is better than what Southwest Transplant Alliance is doing. Honestly, Pam Silvestri and her colleagues at the OPO's should actually be supporting and helping LifeSharers because at least they are recruiting more people to become organ donors.

Thank you LifeSharers for making this happen because I know I wouldn't have signed up if you didn't have this available. Now you can add another donor to your list which will allow even more lives to be saved which is what this is all about.