Assembly Member Yudelka Tapia, who represents the west Bronx, has sponsored a bill to add an organ donation question to New Yorkers’ tax forms, aiming to vastly increase the number of donors who can save others’ lives.
April is Donate Life month, and many people don’t think about organ donation until they or someone they love is in need of a transplant. But approximately 8,000 people throughout the state are currently awaiting a transplant, and about 400 die each year while waiting, according to Donate Life New York State.
Each donor can save up to eight people.
Most people elect to be organ donors while at the DMV, where as many as 80% enroll. But for those who don’t interact with the DMV at all — or those who have several years between visits — they may not think of it.
On the other hand, pretty much everyone has to file income taxes every single year. As many as 10 million New Yorkers do — and Tapia’s bill would allow them to register as donors with the click of a button.
Tapia told the Bronx Times that organ donation is reaching a “crisis” level in New York state, with enrollment falling far short of the need. The DMV is “one of the biggest entrants we have right now,” but it’s not catching everyone, she said.
“It’s not about just willingness to be a donor. It’s about access,” Tapia said. “Most people sign up when it’s easy.”
More donors desperately needed
The Bronx in particular shows plenty of room for improving its organ donor registration numbers.
Bronx and Queens Counties lag behind the rest of the city, with 32.1% of the eligible population registered.
Kings County is higher, at 39.2%, but New York County has twice as many registered donors at 61.7%. Throughout the state, ten counties have over 80%.
For Tapia, the fight for organ donation enrollment is highly personal.
She said three of her four children were diagnosed with kidney disease at a young age. She said her oldest son passed away, and another son waited 16 years for a donor. “It was excruciating,” she said. Currently, her youngest son currently has kidney failure and needs a donor.
Tapia said she saw her family’s tragedy as an opportunity to change the system for thousands of New Yorkers in need. “This is something happening in many of our families,” she said.
Tapia said adding a donation question to tax forms would not require any new program or complicated system, and several other states have already done so, including Michigan, California and Wisconsin. In Michigan alone, 183,000 people signed up in the first year, Tapia said.
Putting the question on the tax forms — where people can elect yes, no or skip — is “the biggest one that can change the game,” she said. “It works, and it has been demonstrated that it works.”
The bill passed through the legislature last year, but Governor Hochul vetoed it, and many tax preparation companies oppose it, Tapia said.
This time around, she has taken the bill back to the finance commissioner to address past concerns and believes it will pass.
Aisha Tator, executive director of Donate Life NYS, said more people like Tapia’s son, whose donation saved five people’s lives, are desperately needed.
“There isn’t a single community in this state not touched by this mission,” she said.
In addition to the DMV, the donation question has already been added to voter registration, hunting and fishing license forms, municipal ID card applications, public health insurance plan enrollment forms and more, Tator said. Residents can also enroll online at the dedicated website https://donatelifenys.org/register.
Seeing the option repeatedly “creates that culture of donation” and normalizes thinking about an unpleasant but necessary topic — what happens to our bodies after we die.
“With every one of these opportunities, New Yorkers check the box ‘yes,’” Tator said. “This is what we do for each other.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
