A WAR OF WORDS OVER ORGAN DONATIONS.Byline: Denise Mann Medical Tribune News Service With about 45,000 Americans waiting for organ transplants, most experts agree that steps need to be taken to secure more organs. What they don't agree on is how to bolster organ donation Organ donation is the removal of the tissues of the human body from a person who has recently died, or from a living donor, for the purpose of transplanting or grafting them into other persons. . If all adults were forced to make a decision about organ donation when applying for a driver's license or filling out a tax return - and family members could not prevent an organ from being donated - the supply of organs would increase, Dr. Aaron Spital spit·al n. Archaic A hospital, especially one for patients with contagious diseases. [Middle English spitel, short for hospital; see hospital.] , of the University of Rochester The University of Rochester (UR) is a private, coeducational and nonsectarian research university located in Rochester, New York. The university is one of 62 elected members of the Association of American Universities. , N.Y., School of Medicine, stated in the July 1 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine Annals of Internal Medicine (Ann Intern Med) is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It publishes research articles and reviews in the area of internal medicine. Its current editor is Harold C. Sox. . The other camp, however, contends that family members deserve a say, too, and that the only way to increase organ donation is through a national public-education campaign that fosters discussion of the issue. ``Forcing people to commit to a specific end-of-life decision is coercive and shortsighted short·sight·ed adj. 1. Nearsighted; myopic. 2. Lacking foresight. short  sight ,'' said Ann C. Klassen, of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, who wrote an opposing editorial in the same journal.
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