THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411240027
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
This holiday season, ask your loved ones if they wish to share their lives by becoming organ and tissue donors if tragedy should befall them.
You need only ask one time, and this season of giving and thanksgiving is an appropriate and meaningful time to have this conversation.
There are 36,000 people lying in U.S. hospitals right now awaiting an organ transplant that will restore them to productive lives. Many will die waiting. Yet each day thousands of healthy, vital organs are buried, burned or destroyed because the deceased did not know of the need or had made a decision to be an organ donor but failed to share that decision with his or her family.
Research has shown that even though a drivers license may have been signed, if the deceased's wishes were not known by the next of kin, there is a good chance that the opportunity to save lives with those organs will be lost.
Make an all-important life-saving commitment to share your life by sharing your decision to be an organ and tissue donor.
DAN BALLARD
Norfolk, Nov. 22, 1994 by CNB