Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘My Left Kidney’
The generosity of live organ donors like Virginia Postrl is remarkable. But we wouldn’t need many live organ donors if Americans weren’t burying or cremating 20,000 transplantable organs every year [“My Left Kidney,” Amity Shlaes, Opinion, March 15, 2006].
There is an easier solution to the organ shortage – if you don’t agree to donate your organs when you die, then you go to the back of the waiting list if you ever need an organ to live.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer.
About 60% of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven’t agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers.
LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. They do this through a form of directed donation that is legal in all 50 states and under federal law.
Anyone can join for free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. LifeSharers has 4,046 members, including 198 members in New York. Over 400 of our members are minor children enrolled by their parents.
DAVID J. UNDIS
Executive Director
LifeSharers
www.lifesharers.org
Nashville, Tenn.
It’s ironic to find any support for the teachers’ union coming from groups that claim to support small classroom sizes [“Lobbying Against Parents,” Editorial, March 13, 2006].
The simplest way to reduce class size would be by bringing in more teachers. The easiest way to bring in these teachers without increasing taxes would be to end the lavish contracts given to the union.
Most of the middle class that pays the taxes that support this union are expecting to work years, if not decades, past the retirement clause of their contract. And few of us expect the summer off.
JOSH KALISH
Manhattan
‘One Common Link’
“One Common Link” is very informative, giving those of us who are too young some historical perspective about the lost potential of Robert F. Kennedy [Warren Kozak, Opinion, March 17, 2006].
Additionally, for me, the timeline of terrorist attacks (and the lives lost) since June 5, 1968, makes it perfectly clear the current administration is not solely responsible for the hatred emanating from the Middle East.
The terrorists in the region were originally inspired by Israel’s success in the 1967 Six Day War, and the support given to Israel by the United States.
SALVATORE J. BOMMARITO
Manhattan
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