Organ Donation - It's Everywhere

Why do things happen in threes?  I have no clue, but when they do my attention is captured.  Two weeks ago I ran the Capital City 5K, which raises awareness and funds for the National Kidney Foundation.  Later a book came in for me at the library, The Organ Donor Experience by Katrina A. Bramstedt and Rena Down. It explores the motivation behind 22 organ donors. And then my husband sent me an article about Vice President Dick Cheney, who recently received a heart transplant.  Organ donation -- it seems to be everywhere.  From the whirlwind emerged several thoughts:

• admiration for the women who ran next to me at the 5K.  About my age, she ran with two young children who were wearing t-shirts in thanks for their father being saved by a liver transplant two months ago.  Damn, she ran as well as me while pushing two kids and has a husband recovering from a major illness.  Hats off to her, and motivation for me to increase my speed.  What possibly could distract me more than her?
• compassion for families of those who became a donor at death.  Even if the human quest to end aging is achieved, life will happen in the form of tragic accidents.  Taking those too young, but giving the opportunity to give the gift to life to another through organ transplant.
• contemplation about the future of organ donation.  I have already had one client who wanted to restrict organ donation to organizations that are non-for-profit.  What might the coverage of Dick Cheney's, a polarizing personality, heart transplant mean for future donors.  Hopefully nothing, but might people want to restrict donations based on requirements -- age, gender, religion?  Also, the question of whether organs will continue to be transplanted.  Instead might we simply "grow" someone a new heart, lung, liver?

And those are the types of things that spin around in my mind, the mind of a lawyer who spends her work week talking about illness, death and taxes.