Local lawmaker helps change organ donor rules
New law gives individuals more control over their wishes
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| Roy Sykes photo Tom Dempsey and his mom, Peggy, at her home in St. Charles. Dempsey donated one of his kidneys to her. |
State Sen. Tom Dempsey, a Republican from St. Charles County, sponsored the new law.
Prior to the change, when a person signed up to become an organ donor, he or she needed two witnesses. Even after signing up, family members of the deceased ultimately decided whether or not to donate their loved ones' organs. The new law requires only the individual's consent.David Griffith, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Revenue, said when people get a driver's license or state identification card they will still be asked if they want to become an organ and tissue donor.
If the answer is yes, an emblem will be placed on the lower righthand corner of the license or identification card.
"I think it's a good piece of legislation, it kind of speaks for itself," Dempsey said.
Griffith said the new law gives an individual's decision to become a donor more clout.
"Before it was intent, now it's consent," Griffith said.
The emblem, a red heart wrapped in a green ribbon with the word donor above it, is a national symbol for organ and tissue donation and is recognizable to emergency and health workers, Griffith said.
Incorporating the emblem into the license design will not cost extra, Griffith said.
There was little organized opposition to the bill, but some individuals had expressed concerns, Dempsey said. Some said there should be a register for people who didn't want to donate their organs, Dempsey said.
"No one in my district voiced any concerns," Dempsey said. "The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House and the Senate."
Robert Spencer of Ballwin lobbied for the bill along with Mid-America Transplant Services. Spencer's 16-year-old daughter, Dana, died in a car accident 11 years ago.
The Spencers decided to donate Dana's organs after she was pronounced brain dead, in accordance with her wishes.
"That made the decision a lot easier, that we knew how she felt," Spencer said. "That's part of the great thing about the organ donation registry."
Tammy McLane is the director of corporate communications for Mid-America Transplant, a non-profit organization that specializes in coordinating the donation and transportation of vital organs for area hospitals.
"If more people are on the registry, it is going to result in more people donating and more people donating results in more lives being saved," McLane said.
People who consented to organ donation before the law went into effect should reregister online if they still wish to be donors, McLane said.
Hospital personnel will still have access to the old list, McLane said, but the final decision to donate organs and tissues will be left to family members of individuals who have not signed up on the new registry.
Dr. Michael Handler, medical director and chief medical officer for SSM St. Joseph Hospital West, said he thought the new rules would make the organ donation decision process more "kindly and efficient."
"I think doing away with the secondary consent will make it easier on the family members," Handler said. "They'll know what their loved one wanted."
Dempsey said he believed he was approached to sponsor the bill because of his personal interest in organ and tissue donation.
"I donated a kidney to my mother," Dempsey said. "That's an easy decision, it's my mother."
Dempsey's mother's body rejected the kidney.
"Mine doesn't have a great end of the story," he said. "I would rather my story not be told if it would deter someone from giving."
Dempsey's mother is still alive with the help of dialysis, and the senator said he would have done the same thing regardless of the outcome.
Dempsey said thousands of people are waiting for organ and tissue donation. The new legislation would help fulfill the wishes of people who intended to give, Dempsey said.
"It's amazing that people will make that gift and I think we should honor that commitment," Dempsey said.
Individuals who would like to sign up for the organ and tissue donation registry can do so at: http://www.dhss.mo.gov/OrganDonor.
