Solution for Organ Shortage

“Will Pig Organs Bring a New Era?” (May 18), about pig organs someday replacing the need for human donors, failed to mention that there is a far more humane solution to the national organ shortage.

Austria and Belgium already have a policy in place which assumes that when a person dies his or her organs will be donated, unless the person or the person’s family signs a statement prohibiting it. This presumed-donor program has been an enormous success because it catches all the people in the middle who simply don’t care one way or the other. The number of organs available for transplant in Belgium and Austria has skyrocketed. For example, fewer than 200 kidneys were collected in Belgium prior to the change in law. Now the figure is well over 400 per year.

Both Belgium and Austria now have a modest surplus of organs, which they export to other members of the European Union. What’s more, nobody complains about the law, because any individual or family that doesn’t want to participate can easily sign an organ non-donor card.

An organ surplus in the United States would save over 3,000 lives per year. Those who would like to support this change in law can contact our committee at P.O. Box 6322, Washington D.C., 20015.

DAVID BRETT WASSER

Communications Director Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Washington