Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Is your life worth $7? How about your neighbor's life?

In Georgia, you get a $7 discount on your drivers license fee if you register as an organ donor. The state legislature has passed a bill, backed by the governor, to end this discount.

According to a story in Monday's Savannah Morning News, data from the Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety shows that drivers who are eligible for the discount are up to 40% more likely to sign up as donors than those who don't qualify for the discount, such as veterans who get their licenses for free.

That's a whole lot of people who would rather bury their organs than save several lives if they don't get $7. This is more proof that altruism will not solve the organ shortage. There just aren't enough people who are generous enough to share the gift of life with their fellow man.

To get more organs, we need to provide people with an incentive. That's what LifeSharers does. We give people a better chance of getting an organ if they ever need one to live, in exchange for a promise to donate their organs when they die.

There's another benefit to joining LifeSharers -- your organs are less likely to go to someone who thinks your life is worth less than $7.

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