Letters

should also donate

Editor,

Isabel Stenzel-Byrnes and Ana Stenzel were very lucky to get lung transplants ("A cause you just have to support” in the April 26 edition of the Daily Journal).

More than half of the 92,000 Americans on the national waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans donate only about half of the organs that could save lives and relieve suffering. They bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year.

Over 6,000 of their neighbors die every year as a result. There is a simple solution to the organ shortage — give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.

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 percent of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven’t agreed to donate their own organs when they die. People who aren’t prepared to share the gift of life shouldn’t be eligible for transplants as long as there is a shortage of organs. 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 4,236 members, including 618 members in California. Over 400 of our members are minor children enrolled by their parents.

David J. Undis

Nashville, Tenn.

The letter writer is the

executive director of LifeSharers.

Work comp reform,

a success for who?

Editor,

I just read the article regarding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger touting his workers’ compensation reform ("Gov. claims workers’ comp changes a ‘huge success’” in the April 21 edition of the Daily Journal).

The headline suggests that it’s been a "huge success,” according to Schwarzenegger.

But that suggestion is misleading since, more significantly, the article states that a survey of 2,000 small businesses found 92 percent and 85 percent of small businesses polled witnessed no change in their work comp premiums, or an actual increase in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

The headline should have read "Gov. makes false claims regarding workers’ comp success.”

The only real business winners so far have been the insurance companies who have profited in a truly massive way. Insurance Commissioner John Garimendi’s comment about the average rate reduction being 26.7 percent versus the governor’s touted 40 percent reduction is also misleading and optimistic. "Average” according to him is not a truly typical reduction seen by California employers.

The fact is that most businesses in California have seen negligible relief from workers’ comp rates, while the insurance industry has reaped unbelievable profits.

This reform has been no success for most Californians, who are being purposefully duped by the governor’s commentary regarding this reform. The reality is that huge, windfall profits are being realized by the insurance industry because of what Schwarzenegger has done, and the citizens of this state are paying for it through exorbitant work comp rates, and terrible work comp benefits.

Mark Reis

San Carlos<