Jesse White visits SIU to tout organ donor legislation

Secretary of State Jesse White came to SIU Arena Wednesday night to promote Organ Donor Night at the men's basketball game and garner support for legislation that would create a first person consent organ donor registry.

Joining the new registry would make a person's decision to become an organ and tissue donor binding. Currently, the final decision for organ donation is in the hands of a person's next of kin even if the person has joined the donor registry and signed the back of their driver's license. The legislation was proposed to the Illinois General Assembly Wednesday.

Even though Illinois has the highest donor registry in the nation with more than six million participants, there are nearly 5,000 people on waiting lists for transplants. In 2003, more than 290 people died waiting for a transplant.

At a press conference before the game, White said he supports the bill because he feels the system does not meet the final requests of people who sign up for the registry. Parents or family who have lost loved ones, he says, are often in such emotional crisis they don't want make those kind of decisions in a hurry, and there is a limited amount of time after death that the organs can still be used.

"There are times when a donor's wishes are not carried through," White said.

"When someone becomes an organ donor, we owe it to them to honor their wishes." White has dealt with this issue personally. When his brother passed away in 1981, his family declined consent for organ donation because they did not know what his brother's wishes were and didn't feel they could make such an important decision.

He said the proposed law would keep something like this from happening to other people. "It happened in my case with my brother and I could easily see it happen to someone else," White said.

White has become the figurehead for organ donation in Illinois. After the death of his brother, he became interested in the subject and began to encourage people to tell family members what their preferences are. In 1991, White's sister Doris was the recipient of a kidney transplant.

Gwyndolyn Walker, wife of SIUC president James Walker, came to the press conference in support of the proposed legislation. Walker said she is a living testament to the organ donor program, as she had a lung transplant.

Furthermore, Walker said it the decision regarding organ donation should not be left to parents of loved ones who don't know the donor's wishes. "It's the parents responsibility," Walker said. " Some parents say they just don't believe their kids would want that."

Walker said every member of her family is an organ donor. She said they all became believers in the program when she found out she would be getting a transplant.

"Some of them who didn't believe became believer's after my transplant," Walker said.