Donation Dilemma 

It took me almost 20 years to make the mature decision to check the box on the back of my driver's license and become an organ donor. It was never a matter of, "Oh, what if scientists find a way to bring people back from the dead and I need my organs back?" For me, I could not face the reality of my own mortality. In my teens and my twenties, I was building a life, raising children, maintaining a marriage, beginning my career; I had too many things to look forward to to consider becoming an organ donor.

As my children grew older and I became more aware of the need to have more people "check that box," my understanding of what I was actually doing became very clear. According to recent data, there remains a growing need for living donors in the African American community. The idea that there are millions of people waiting, living on prayers and faith, for a match from a donor, living or otherwise, garners my empathy and compassion.

Jill Denise,a lady in Cincinnati, Ohio, obviously has no qualms with becoming a donor. However, after reading of her story and her family's difficult situation, the question came to me, "If I had to choose, between son or daughter, mother or father, brother or sister, husband or child, how would I be able to choose?" What is the value of a life and how does one choose one loved over another?

The decision to become an organ donor is a personal and "grown up" decision to make. To have to choose which loved one is worthy of such a gift is a situation I hope to never face.