I just got this from the folks at the FAIR Foundation:
Dear FAIR Foundation members, As you know, the FAIR Foundation has been at the forefront in the effort to implement pilot projects of new organ-donor policies to reverse America’s organ-donor crisis. Indeed, one person on the waiting list, or one who was on it but was delisted prior to transplant, dies every hour. The waiting list is now above 100,000 and continues to get larger.
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) held an online event this morning regarding financial incentives to increase organ recoveries and save more lives. Although 76,000 of the 100,000+ on the waiting list need a kidney transplant, the NKF has been opposed to financial incentives since 2003. However, they are now reconsidering their position and they have requested input in this survey http://www.kidney.org/survey/ for their upcoming Board of Directors meeting.
I join with our 25-member Board of Directors in urging you to participate in the survey and notate your support for financial incentives for BOTH living donors and deceased donors. It is a very short survey and you do not have to include your name or contact information.
Senator Specter has introduced an excellent bill in support of financial incentives (read about it here). We recommend that you note in your survey answers that you support his bill. The NKF is a very large organization with powerful contacts in DC. We need their support.
For an outline of FAIR’s position in support of financial incentives you may read our template letter here. We, the many co-signers of that template letter who are listed and our Board of Directors believe that with such financial incentives the waiting list would be eliminated within five to ten years.
Thank you for your help and participation in this important survey. Please forward this information to other members of your organization, post it in online groups, etc. and urge them to also participate with a “Yes” vote in favor of financial incentives.
Dr. Richard Darling, DDS: Past National Public Citizen of the Year (NASW)
President and CEO: The FAIR Foundation, a national organization with thousands of members and supporters whose goal is to reverse inequities in NIH research funding and to institute new organ-donor policies to reverse America’s organ-donor crisis
Founder: The FAIR Foundation Liver Disease & Transplant Support Group
Author: Coma Life, an autobiographical memoir of life “within” coma and survival over hepatitis C
induced liver cancer, coma, 3 liver transplants, heart attack, diabetes & Muscular Dystrophy (Myasthenia Gravis)
Address: 78629 Bougainvillea Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92211 Ph: 760-200-2766