This is in response to a letter printed July 2 from Gordon McLaren. His letter about organ donation highlighted the tragic shortage of human organs for transplant operations.

There are now more than 110,000 people on the National Transplant Waiting List, with more than 50 percent of these people dying before they get a transplant.

Most of those deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate 20,000 transplantable organs every year.

There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage: Give donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.

Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system more fair. Everyone who is willing to receive should be willing to give.

David Undis, Nashville, Tenn.

Executive director, LifeSharers