Letters to the editor for Sunday, July 28, 2013

Be an organ donor; transplant list is long

Last week during an event at Incline Elementary School, a lady asked for money donations to continue the music program. I would like to know if it is just as easy to donate money as donate organs. It is always difficult to talk about things after life, but we can donate some of them alive. Almost everyone can donate something. The specific organs (heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, and intestines) and tissues (bone, tendons, and related tissue, blood vessels, heart valves, skin and corneas) that can be donated depend on the circumstances of death and the medical condition of the deceased.

Unfortunately, the number of people awaiting transplants has greatly outpaced the number of people donating their organs. Currently, there are over 101,000 people on the national transplant list. People in our community want to donate organs, but they are afraid about the health care or if we will receive the same level of care whether or not the desire to be a donor has been specified. A transplant team does not become involved until other physicians have determined that death has occurred. Also, transplant surgeons and technicians are extremely respectful of the body.

Eighteen people die every day waiting for an opportunity. It can be increasingly more if we don’t take care and responsibility of it. The Department of Motor Vehicles works with the Nevada Donor Network. We can ask for it, and change our driver’s license, “when we donate organs, people permit us to continue to live.”

Maria Torres

Incline Village

Abortion is not a form of birth control

I would like to comment on a letter to the editor. They’re battling women’s rights, what about the baby’s rights? Life begins at conception. I cannot understand how people think it is just a fetus. Obviously they know it’s wrong. Yes, it starts out as a fetus, but it grows in your stomach for nine months.

In my opinion, abortion should only be used if a women is raped or a mother is in danger — not as birth control. That’s what pills are for. If women were smart and took the right precautions, they wouldn’t have to go through that and other things. Why do women have abortions when there are doctors who will prevent that from happening? Would it cost less?

“It’s my body.” Well, think before spreading your legs. I hope this bill passes and ends this sinless act of killing. Also, educate our teens about having sex.

Ruth Berg

Carson City