If not, with consent of the attending physician, the option must be discussed with the patient. If there is no record of objection to an anatomical gift, after death the hospital must initiate discussion of a gift with anyone entitled to make such a gift. The revised act also mandates coordination among hospitals and procurement organizations, so that donors can be matched with those who need organs. It expressly prohibits the sale of organs, and enables individuals specifically to forbid the taking of their own organs, if they so desire. While the public must be further educated to increase awareness of the organ shortage, and individuals wishing to donate their organs must be encouraged to tell their family of their wishes, the importance of enacting the revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act should be self-evident.
Every donor has the potential of giving renewed life to four other people.
The ULC, officially known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, is now in its 109th year. The organization comprises more than 300 lawyers, judges, and law professors, appointed by the states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to draft proposals for uniform and model laws and work toward their enactment in their legislatures. Since its inception in 1892, the group has promulgated more than 200 acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code, and the Uniform Partnership Act.