Six thousand people will die this year awaiting an organ transplant. That is 16 deaths per day. Waiting times for cadaver organs have tripled for livers and doubled for kidneys in recent years. Perhaps most disturbing of all is that studies indicate that organs are recovered from less than 50% of potential donors.

Missed opportunities to identify and refer potential donors, as well as low rates of consent from next of kin, are two pervasive barriers to organ donation today. Important steps have been undertaken to address the need to increase organ donation. The Department of Health and Human Services recently launched a new national Gift to Life Donation Initiative, designed to encourage and enable Americans to donate organs and tissues for transplantation. A national "Workplace Partnership for Life" has been implemented which promotes donation by making information about donating available in the workplace.

Most organs are now from living donors, yet a major private sector impediment remains. Health maintenance organizations and other insurance companies often do not consider voluntary donation a health problem and will not pay for the hospitalization cost of the donor. The auto industry and the United Auto Workers have agreed to eliminate this impediment to organ donation.

It is clear that many options need to be examined in an effort to increase organ donation rates and save lives. Other pending proposals for increasing rates of organ donation include a financial incentives measure for deceased-donor beneficiaries, as well as a donor authorization proposal. The donor authorization proposal would ensure that the donor’s wishes be realized and not subjected to any decision-making process by their families.