Texas' organ, tissue donor program tops seven million registrants

AUSTIN, TX -- In 2014 the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) recorded approximately 1.4 million new registrants to the Glenda P. Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry, boosting the total registry to more than seven million individuals. The registry is the state database of individuals who have officially indicated their decisions to donate organs and tissue to benefit thousands of people currently awaiting transplants.

"Since the program's inception, the DPS driver license system has played a critical role in the registry process, and DPS is proud to have helped millions of Texans join the Donate Life registry," said DPS Director Steven McCraw. "Every person who selflessly elects to register as a donor has the potential to save another individual's life."

"The Texas Department of Public Safety staff are essential to the Donate Life Texas organ, eye and tissue donor registry. Of the seven million Texans now registered, 98 percent of them joined the registry by saying yes to donation while applying for a state ID or driver license," said Patricia Niles, Donate Life Texas Board Chair. "Those who register give the precious gift of hope to the thousands who await lifesaving transplants. I commend the DPS for helping to make donor registration in Texas convenient as well as heroic."

Read more from The Friendswood Journal, a Houston Community Newspaper partner