Unfortunately for Steve Jobs, an apple a day does not keep the doctor away.
Jobs, Apple CEO, was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer six years ago and received a liver transplant only a year ago.
Because of the limited availability of organ donors in California, Jobs’ doctors insisted that he place his name on a waiting list in Tennessee — the list of patients waiting for transplants is significantly shorter there.
When a match was found, Jobs was able to take a private jet cross-country to Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, where he underwent surgery to receive his new kidney.
Jobs saw the need to expand California’s organ donor program because of his confrontation with death.
At a Christmas event last year, Jobs spoke with California first lady Maria Shriver about his near-death experience. Shriver then went on to tell Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. After a few phone calls between the CEO and the governor, a new bill was introduced expanding organ donations.
Jobs’ wealth is what gave him quick access to a new liver, but not every person on the waiting list can do what he did.
Obviously, money is what kept Jobs alive. It is not easy to get placed on a Tennessee-transplant list or to move close to a Tennessee hospital and wait for an organ to become available — all at a moment’s notice.
For an expansion of organ-donorship, California, obviously, needs more organ donors.
This new bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to ask driver’s license applicants whether they want to become an organ and tissue donor, before they issue the applicants a driver’s license.
So, in order to obtain a license, a person would have to pass a vision test, obey traffic laws while demonstrating safe driving and, now, decide whether they would like to be an organ donor.
Answering the question to be a donor is optional for drivers today: “Nobody’s going to ask you. Nobody’s going to give you this opportunity,” said Jobs of the process nowadays.
If willing, a person would be placed on a state registry.
Last year, 400 people died before they were able to receive a liver.
Jobs’ plan centers around the idea that with more donors available, the number of people who die waiting for an organ would eventually decrease.
Although Jobs’ intentions are in the right place, those who are willing to donate their organs are probably already in the state registry. And leaving the decision up to an 18-year-old who is just excited to get they license is not a viable option. Still, Schwarzenegger jumped right on board with Jobs’ proposal.
However, with the governor’s term coming to an end, is he just pushing out a reform to get in to history books?
After all, most Californians will probably only remember his most recent actions.
He explained that although Jobs is a man of wealth, he doesn’t believe that “only wealthy people should get … [transplants] and have a plane waiting to take [them] anywhere [they] need to go.”
Does this mean Schwarzenegger is actually fighting for the “common man” and not the upper class or corporations? No, but it would be nice if he was.
By introducing this bill, Schwarzenegger likely fooled at least 21,000 people — the number of California residents waiting for an organ donation.
It does not take a genius to tell us that people should not die simply because they cannot afford proper medical treatment. Yet, it does take a genius to figure out exactly how that idea can be carried out in society.
Unfortunately, a genius is what California government lacks. Too bad Jobs hasn’t created an app for that.
