An average of 19 people die every day in the U.S. waiting to receive an organ. That’s nearly 7,000 deaths per year which could potentially be prevented if organ donors were available.I’ve always known that organ donation is a problem, but I only recently realized I was contributing to the problem. I hadn’t registered as an organ donor.Organ donation is a process full of myths and rumors, including horror stories of individuals having their organs taken against their will while they were still alive.In reality, doctors actually perform more tests than normal to ensure a potential donor is deceased. Medical personnel then consult a waiting list of patients who need organs and arrange to have them undergo the transplant process — something which must often be done within hours, limiting potential candidates to a geographical range.Organ donation registration in the U.S. is handled by individual state registries. In Louisiana, organ donation can be done online at Lopa.org in less than 20 seconds or by simply grabbing a Sharpie and checking a box on the back of your driver’s license (both things I did while writing this column).The current system is certainly simple and easy, but it’s ineffective. More organ donors are needed.A colleague of mine, Daniel Morgan, proposed a few weeks back we should enter a new age of free-market organ trading to fix this problem. He had some good points, but I believe there may be another solution.The U.S. needs to adopt an opt-out organ donation system.Under such a system, it will     automatically be assumed you want to donate your organs upon death if you are a match with someone in need. You will always have the choice not to donate your organs by opting-out.Spain pioneered this system, which is now widely adopted in Europe. Organ donor shortages have been reduced as a result, saving countless lives.Americans largely support organ donation. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 95 percent of Americans said they support organ donation, while 78 percent said it was “likely” or “very likely” they would donate their organs after death.
But because Americans must  indicate they do in fact want to be donors, the law of complacency states many people will never actually indicate their desire to donate upon death.Even with the high levels of support for organ donation, 57 percent oppose the opt-out system I just described, also called presumed consent.This, too, is likely a product of misconceptions and emotional reactions. There are the government nihilists who will say this somehow infringes on the liberties of Americans. These are the people who have taken ideology past the point of no return, where any common sense government policy is equated to tyranny, even though Americans will still have the ability to say no.Other opponents have been conditioned to enter fits of paranoia when “government” and “organ donation” are put in the same sentence. Never mind logic and facts — less government is more!We need Americans to see this policy for what it really is — an effective way to save lives while respecting the wishes of Americans who do not want to donate their organs. We need to make it so the minority of Americans — the ones who don’t want to donate their organs — are left with the burden of opting out to organ donation, rather than allowing unnecessary death in America.Mark Macmurdo is a 22-year-old history and economics senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_mmacmurdo. 
—-Contact Mark Macmurdo at [email protected]