MONTPELIER — Lawmakers are weighing a bill that would make organ donation automatic unless a person expressly chooses not to.
House bill 57 would change the way an individual joins the state’s organ donor registry, from “opting in” — choosing to be a donor — to enrolling a person to the registry automatically unless he or she creates a written directive not to be a donor.
The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Barbara Rachelson, D-Burlington, said many people who think they are organ donors are not. “How do we have so many people walking around that have a good intention about it, but are not signing up and their wishes are not being met?” Rachelson said.
