By: Fred Smith
Not enough is being done to make organ donation more accessible for people of color — and according to Aisha Tator, there’s still a long way to go. She describes the ongoing shortage as an *organ scarcity crisis* that has escalated into a public health emergency.
“We have over 50% of New Yorkers enrolled in the New York State Donate Life Registry,” Tator told the *AmNews*. “But we have a lot of work to do. We have 8,000 people who are depending on us to be advocates.”
Tator serves as the Executive Director of Donate Life New York State, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing organ and tissue donations. The organization emphasizes the urgent need to raise awareness about the nationwide shortage of available organs.
One of the key steps toward addressing the crisis, Tator notes, is the recently passed **HEART Act** — legislation enacted in October 2025 that repeals New York’s ban on multiple listing for organ transplants. The new law allows patients to register with several transplant centers across the state, a change advocates believe will save lives, shorten wait times, and ease the financial burden on low-income residents who might otherwise need to seek out-of-state registration.
“We’re very proud of one of the policy initiatives that successfully made it through this year,” Tator said, referring to the HEART Act. “The legislation not only encourages patients to register with more than one transplant center, but it also requires transplant centers— under federal policy—to inform patients, both verbally and in writing, of their right to do so. This strengthens equity and fairness within the system,” she added, “and it also brings New York in line with national standards and practices.”
There have also been notable victories in the effort to increase organ donor registrations. In a 2024 press release, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that, for the first time, more than half of eligible New Yorkers had signed up to become organ and tissue donors through the state’s Organ Donor Registry. These reforms are especially relevant for minority populations because racial and ethnic disparities in organ donation and transplantation have been well documented.
Black and Hispanic Americans, for example, experience higher rates of conditions such as kidney failure but tend to wait significantly longer—often 18 to 24 months longer—than White patients for a transplant. Additionally, these communities have lower rates of donor registration, often due to historical mistrust of the medical system and lack of culturally sensitive outreach.
By improving system transparency, simplifying registration, and reducing economic barriers for living donors, these laws directly target factors that have contributed to inequitable outcomes. Furthermore, expanding donor participation within diverse communities increases the genetic diversity of available organs, which can improve matching and transplant success rates for minority patients.
