It turns out that having my friends sign the back of my driver’s license four years ago, to witness that I want to be an organ donor, is now worthless. If I want to at least be useful AFTER my death, I have to re-register online. As an Illinois resident, you now need to RE-REGISTER in Illinois’ NEW organ/tissue donor registry, established by the Illinois Secretary of State’s office last year.
In 2007, the national donor waiting list surpassed 100,000 people. I don’t know how many people die every day, but surely it wouldn’t take long to work through the donor list if everyone were willing to be used for parts. Why would you NOT register at www.IAmAreYou.org? I think each state has their own list, so if you don’t live in Illinois, you’ll have to research the website for your state.
Just think: if you died tomorrow, you’d leave hundreds of things undone. You can at least try to save a life (literally, seriously) in about five minutes. Illinois people, I know our website takes about two minutes.
I just wanted to pass this along. It’s got to be the easiest way imaginable to think of yourself as a giving person: “Hey, you can have everything! Just wait til I’m dead.”