Share organs with other donors

To the editor:Regarding the Jan. 27 story "Cindy's success: Cape woman with Down syndrome reaches 20-year mark with sister's kidney": The generosity of live organ donors like Becky Atkins is remarkable. But we wouldn't need many live organ donors if Americans weren't burying or cremating 20,000 transplantable organs every year.

There is a better way to put a big dent in the organ shortage: If you don't agree to donate your organs when you die, then you go to the back of the waiting list if you ever need an organ to live.

Giving organs first to organ donors would convince more people to register as organ donors. It would also make the organ-allocation system fairer. About 60 percent of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven't agreed to donate their own organs when they die.

Anyone who wants to donate organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers, a not-for-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. LifeSharers has 7,767 members, including 155 members in Missouri. Over 700 of our members are minor children enrolled by their parents.

DAVID J. UNDIS, Executive Director, LifeSharers, Nashville, Tenn.