SALISBURY, Md.- A new law could soon require Maryland driver's education programs to add donor awareness to their curriculum. But that is only if some lawmakers get their way.
State Sen. Jamie Raskin said that all programs within the state would have to set aside a half hour in the course to educate young and new drivers about organ donation.
Eighteen-year-old Richard Sell said he never was an organ donor the first time he got his license at 16, but his thought process changed as he got older.
"Now that I guess I have matured a little bit I have realized that a lot of people die needing organs and so I thought I can help," he said.
Karen Sell, who is Richard's mother, said that not only does she support the bill, but also her son's decision to be an organ donor.
"I hope they do educate them because we didn't have that growing up," Sell said. "We didn't have that education. We just came here to get our license and they would just ask, 'Hey, would you like to be an organ donor?' And the bells and whistles would go off and at first I said no because I did not have the education."
Jeffrey Carrion said he has always been an organ donor, so on his 21st birthday on Friday he decided to keep it that way on his new driver's license.
"I think more education definitely wouldn't hurt," Carrion said. "I think it's more important to educate the older people about it because they seem to be more against it that the younger generation."
John Wright, who is a driver's education teacher and runs a school in Salisbury, said that he supports organ donation but is not sure if the government needs to interfere.
"I'm not sure that is something that needs to be addressed in driver's ed," he said. "We've got lots of things, we've got hundreds of items, hundreds of objectives that we have to meet through out the course."
Raskin said that the bill already had a hearing in committee on Thursday. He added that a preliminary vote is likely expected to happen next week.
(Photo: WBOC)
