Caption
Close
Troy
Jenny Picarillo and Ava Sweeney were waiting for the day they could designate themselves organ donors.
For the high school seniors, that day came Tuesday, when a new law went into effect allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to add their names to the list of New Yorkers willing to give their organs away at death.
Both teens had personal reasons for wanting others to receive their organs in the event of their untimely deaths. Picarillo’s life was changed five years ago, when her mother received a kidney from a deceased donor. Sweeney’s grandmother lived four years after receiving a lung transplant before the 17-year-old was born.
“She was able to meet me because of it,” Sweeney said, causing her mother and Picarillo’s to tear up in the Catholic Central High School cafeteria, where the teens had organized an organ, eye and tissue registry drive.
The two students were responsible for organizing one of 20 organ donation drives at high schools around the state Tuesday, which was both the day the new law went into effect and National Donor Day, held each year on Valentine’s Day. At Catholic Central, 18 students signed up during the 40-minute sign-up period.
Advocates for organ and tissue donation hope the new law is one of several initiatives that will improve the rate of donating in New York, which ranks 51st out of 52 U.S. states and territories, according to Aisha Tator, executive director of the New York Alliance for Donation. (Puerto Rico is 52nd.) Just 28 percent of eligible New Yorkers register to donate organs, compared to a national average of 54 percent, Tator said.
But New York’s need for organs ranks as the third highest in the nation, she said. There are 9,500-10,000 state residents waiting for an organ on any given day. About 1,800 of them have been waiting five years or more.
The disconnect between supply and demand had advocates scratching their heads for years.
“There’s not something different about New Yorkers — we’re not less kind, we’re not less generous,” Tator said. “There is a process problem.”
Like other states, New York allows residents to register as organ donors when they get or renew their driver’s licenses. But until Tuesday, it was one of only four other states that required drivers to be 18 to register.
Here’s what would typically happen, Tator said: A 16-year-old would get a driver’s license, but be too young to register as an organ donor. A new license would automatically be issued at age 18, lifting some restrictions, Tator said. Then an adult license would automatically be issued at 21. It would be eight more years, age 29 for most people, before they must renew their licenses and have the option of registering as a donor organ.
Another issue keeping donor registry rates low, Tator said, is relatively low rates of driving in New York City, home to more than 8 million of the state’s residents. So the New York Alliance for Donation is seeking other ways for people to sign up. Tator said. Online registration will be available later this year. Tator would also like to see a place to designate organ donation on state income tax forms.
While 16- and 17-year-olds may now register for organ donation, their parents must approve of the gift in the event of their deaths, Tator said.
chughes@timesunion.com • 518-454-5417 • @hughesclaire
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
