14 DAY TRIAL // California State residents have the imperative duty to accept or decline the option of becoming an organ donor when they make any modifications on their driving licenses, AppleInsider reports, citing the San Jose Mercury News. After selecting their option, they are free to mark it by sticking a pink docket on the back of their license. This seems to be the current regulation regarding the organ donor process.
According to interviews scored with Stanford physicians, the legislation would allow the development of a “living donor registry.” In this kind of system, everyone who is willing to donate their organs can sign up to save a sick person. The doctors assure that kidney donation, for example, is safe and does not affect the donor’s life span.
It is widely known that, almost a year ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs underwent a successful liver transplant surgery at the Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Grounding in the "obscure procedure," Jobs marked out that "no one is asking the simple question: Will you donate your organs?" suggesting this may be the main cause for unresolved cases.
"There were not enough livers in California to go around. I was advised by my Stanford doctors to enroll on a list at a Memphis hospital, because it was more favorable to get a liver there," said Jobs. "I was fortunate," he added, stressing upon the fact that he was lucky to have had the financial resources to fly across the country in the four-hour limit needed to transplant a healthy organ. He also revealed that "Last year, 400 other Californians died waiting. I could have died."
Six years ago, Jobs fought a very rare form of pancreatic cancer, after which he undertook treatment for liver damaging. After having stabilized his health, the Apple CEO is now trying to make a difference, according to the source. He allegedly intended to cope with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in reforming the donor process registry in California.
"Steve Jobs told my wife about his transplant and she talked to me," said Schwarzenegger. "Then we had great phone conversations back and forth. [...] He knew that others don't have a plane waiting for them to get to a transplant."
The source adds that, on Friday, upon attending a news conference regarding the matter, Jobs stated, "I'm feeling fine. I almost died. It's been a pretty good last few months."