by CARA MATTHEWS | Lohud, lower hudson news
ALBANY — As lawmakers on Tuesday worked past the scheduled end of the session, it was unclear whether legislation aimed at increasing the number of organ donors in New York would get final approval in the Assembly.
The bill would require driver's license and ID applicants to check "yes," "no" or "not at this time" on a question asking them whether they wanted to be an organ donor. Under current law, it is optional for people to fill out that part of the form.
Earlier in the session, the Senate passed legislation that would have required an answer of "yes" or "not at this time." The bill was revised to include the "no" option to give it a better chance of passing in the Assembly. Senators unanimously passed the amended bill Monday. The Assembly had not acted on it as of Tuesday evening.
Some individuals and groups, including the Rockland Business Association, had asked for the change because they didn't think it would be fair to allow people to give a firm yes but not a firm no.
The change, however, has met with opposition from organ-donation advocates, which could jeopardize the bill's passage. By law, they cannot approach families about getting organs from dying relatives who told the state they did not want to donate organs.
"We have a bunch of folks working in the Legislature to see what we can do to just put the brakes on this and see if we can't use the break in the Legislature to work out a better option," said Elaine Berg, president and CEO of the New York Organ Donor Network.
She said the problem with the "no" option is it prohibits organ-donation groups from ever approaching the family.
"People, when forced to make a decision like that, if they're not fully informed about organ donation, which many people in New York are not, the easiest thing to do is just check no," she said.
Texas and Virginia passed laws with "yes" and "no" options and ended up rescinding them because many people were opting out, according to Berg.
The annual legislative session was scheduled to end Monday, but lawmakers plan to be in session at least until Wednesday.
The bill, called Lauren's Law, is named for 11-year-old Lauren Shields of Stony Point, who received a heart transplant last year and has since become a strong advocate for organ donation. She visited the Capitol twice earlier this session to lobby for the bill.
New York ranks 48th out of all the states in terms of the percentage of people on the organ-donor registry, and the original bill would help move New York up on the list, Berg said.
Last year, 15 percent of adult New Yorkers were registered donors and the national average was 40 percent, Donate Life America found. There are roughly 9,600 New Yorkers waiting for organs, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn, who is sponsoring the bill in his house, said he knows not everyone is happy with the amended bill, but he wanted to be fair to everyone.
"I do believe that we are taking into consideration all the people's religious beliefs and everything else that impacts us to build up the right consensus to move forward with the legislation," he said.
Ortiz said his son, who is in his mid-20s, has had a pacemaker since he was a child and may need a heart transplant in the future.
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