If You Get A Tax Refund, You’ll Also Learn About Organ, Tissue Donation

It’s not just an arm and a leg.

The government wants you to give up your liver and heart, too.

The 70 million Americans who receive tax refund checks next year also will receive information on how to become organ and tissue donors upon their death. They will also receive donor cards.

Legislation signed by President Clinton in August, making health insurance portable from job to job, included a section directing the secretary of the treasury to include the information with refund checks mailed between Feb. 1 and June 30.

“This new effort will expand the pool of donors, increase the likelihood that families will authorize donation upon the death of a loved one and reduce the number of people who die while waiting for organ transplants,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., the provision’s sponsor.

“This year, more than 3,000 of the nearly 50,000 people waiting for a transplant will die before they receive one,” he said.

The donor cards allow individuals to notify their families and authorities of their wish to donate all or part of their bodies.