The Gifting Legacy
Human tissue that can be donated for another's use is skin, heart valves, bone, blood vessels, connective tissue, bone marrow/stem cells, and umbilical cord blood. Handing out an eye, heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, lung, liver or intestine may bring about visions of haunted streets, over-hanging moss trees, and Jack-The-Ripper, but there is more to this story. Read on.
Additionally, the idea of parting with a functioning organ can pose a psychological mountain to climb. It is difficult to consider our own thumpty-thump doing thumpos in a chest that doesn't belong to us.
Occasionally, people say if they were rich they would tithe to the poor, donate to food banks, unorphan orphaned children, and heal the sick. Such declarations are admirable but usually chucked in the Good Intentions File 13. We've heard where the path of good intentions lead.
Here's a slant. Most of us are rich, very rich. Organs and tissue are priceless. We have an opportunity to retrieve File 13 and make good on our promises. Share riches. Now or later, be an organ and tissue donor. February 14th is fast approaching. Not only is that Valentine's day, but it is also National Donor Day. When you gift the heart-shaped chocolates, consider also signing a donor card and gift life, too.
It's a given that everyone is destined to die. Billions of people will continue to live notwithstanding our physical departure. Our focus should be there. Life, not death.
It is ordinary to buy life and burial insurance or make directives through a Last Will and Testament. There are two major differences between that type of estate planning and donating organs. One, we don't know who will receive our organs and tissue. Two, our body parts will be walking around without us.
The Texas Anatomical Gift Act authorizes making a gift of our body by indicating our desire to do so in our Last Will & Testament or by carrying a donor card. A donor card must be signed by the donor and two witnesses.
In 2005, the Texas legislature established the DEAR (Donor Education, Awareness and Registry) program which became effective in September 2006. Texas Representative Glenda Dawson sponsored the bill that was later signed into law. She is a kidney transplant recipient.
The program provides every Texan with the opportunity to register the intent to make an anatomical gift upon death and can be conveniently done when a driver's license or license plate is renewed. Collected data through registration can be accessed by organ and tissue organizations. Registering is a means to communicate wishes but does not take the place of a donor card.
According to the Texas Department of Health, there are three steps needed to ensure donation wishes are followed. First, tell your family. Second, register to be a donor. Third, carry a donor card. The most important of the three steps is to tell your family.
By law, permission to use organs will be sought from family members at a time when the potential donor can no longer give consent. Absent a donor card, the category of people who can donate all or part of a deceased's body (in this priority) is spouse, adult child, parent, adult sibling, guardian, or a person authorized to dispose of the body.
The Texas Medical Association cautions that a national medical crisis is at hand because there is a shortage of organ and tissue donors. As many as 75 people can benefit from one tissue donor. A single organ donor can give life to eight people. We can all make a big difference to a lot of people.
Texas has made it easy for us to make a public statement, encourage other's to donate, and financially contribute to a procurement organization at the same time. For a $30 fee, a donor license plate can be obtained from the Texas Department of Transportation. The agency sends $22 to a procurement organization. Texas organ procurement companies are Life Gift Organ Donation Center (Northern and Southeastern Texas); Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (Southern Texas); and Southwest Transplant Alliance (Northeastern, Southeastern and West Texas).
Recently, the United States Department of Health and Human Services honored several hospitals for sustaining a seventy-five percent organ donation rate for one year. Kudos to the cities and surrounding areas: Amarillo, Austin, Bryan, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, Plano, San Angelo, San Antonio, The Woodlands, Tyler and Wichita Falls.
Give life and multiply your legacy.
© Coninc., TheDownsideUp.Com 2007
Additionally, the idea of parting with a functioning organ can pose a psychological mountain to climb. It is difficult to consider our own thumpty-thump doing thumpos in a chest that doesn't belong to us.
Occasionally, people say if they were rich they would tithe to the poor, donate to food banks, unorphan orphaned children, and heal the sick. Such declarations are admirable but usually chucked in the Good Intentions File 13. We've heard where the path of good intentions lead.
Here's a slant. Most of us are rich, very rich. Organs and tissue are priceless. We have an opportunity to retrieve File 13 and make good on our promises. Share riches. Now or later, be an organ and tissue donor. February 14th is fast approaching. Not only is that Valentine's day, but it is also National Donor Day. When you gift the heart-shaped chocolates, consider also signing a donor card and gift life, too.
It's a given that everyone is destined to die. Billions of people will continue to live notwithstanding our physical departure. Our focus should be there. Life, not death.
It is ordinary to buy life and burial insurance or make directives through a Last Will and Testament. There are two major differences between that type of estate planning and donating organs. One, we don't know who will receive our organs and tissue. Two, our body parts will be walking around without us.
The Texas Anatomical Gift Act authorizes making a gift of our body by indicating our desire to do so in our Last Will & Testament or by carrying a donor card. A donor card must be signed by the donor and two witnesses.
In 2005, the Texas legislature established the DEAR (Donor Education, Awareness and Registry) program which became effective in September 2006. Texas Representative Glenda Dawson sponsored the bill that was later signed into law. She is a kidney transplant recipient.
The program provides every Texan with the opportunity to register the intent to make an anatomical gift upon death and can be conveniently done when a driver's license or license plate is renewed. Collected data through registration can be accessed by organ and tissue organizations. Registering is a means to communicate wishes but does not take the place of a donor card.
According to the Texas Department of Health, there are three steps needed to ensure donation wishes are followed. First, tell your family. Second, register to be a donor. Third, carry a donor card. The most important of the three steps is to tell your family.
By law, permission to use organs will be sought from family members at a time when the potential donor can no longer give consent. Absent a donor card, the category of people who can donate all or part of a deceased's body (in this priority) is spouse, adult child, parent, adult sibling, guardian, or a person authorized to dispose of the body.
The Texas Medical Association cautions that a national medical crisis is at hand because there is a shortage of organ and tissue donors. As many as 75 people can benefit from one tissue donor. A single organ donor can give life to eight people. We can all make a big difference to a lot of people.
Texas has made it easy for us to make a public statement, encourage other's to donate, and financially contribute to a procurement organization at the same time. For a $30 fee, a donor license plate can be obtained from the Texas Department of Transportation. The agency sends $22 to a procurement organization. Texas organ procurement companies are Life Gift Organ Donation Center (Northern and Southeastern Texas); Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (Southern Texas); and Southwest Transplant Alliance (Northeastern, Southeastern and West Texas).
Recently, the United States Department of Health and Human Services honored several hospitals for sustaining a seventy-five percent organ donation rate for one year. Kudos to the cities and surrounding areas: Amarillo, Austin, Bryan, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, Plano, San Angelo, San Antonio, The Woodlands, Tyler and Wichita Falls.
Give life and multiply your legacy.
© Coninc., TheDownsideUp.Com 2007
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posted by KKHC | 8:42 AM
