While ORGAN DONOR may be printed in red on your driver’s license beside a red heart, it doesn’t determine whether your organs are donated if a match is found. It’s not even whether you have signed the back of the license or signed up on a donor registry.

In Kansas, your family’s words trump those intentions.

That’s why it is important to have a discussion with your family about whether you want to be a donor. Those who will make the decision are, in order of priority: spouse, adult child, parent, adult sibling and legal guardian.

Any person who is 85 or younger may qualify to donate tissue or an organ.

Ray Gabel, community education coordinator at Midwest Transplant Network, said studies show that 95 percent of people think it’s a good idea, but only 35 percent follow through.

“Take five minutes out of your life and let them know what you want,” Gabel said. “It’s never going to make that day easier, but it’s going to make that decision better.”

Lawrence resident David W. Guth, an associate dean of journalism at Kansas University, faced such a decision in March when his wife, Jan, died after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.

During their 32 years of marriage, the two casually had talked about organ donation when they got their driver’s licenses renewed. But like many people, he never dreamed he would have to make such a decision.

“Frankly, nobody believes that they are going to be in that situation,” he said. “My wife was almost four years younger than I am, so I figured I would go before she would. She was only 50.”

Thanks to those brief conversations, Guth knew his wife wanted to be a donor.

“It is good to know that something good came out of something very, very, very bad,” he said. “In the final analysis, I think it is something that she wanted.”

About a month ago, he was informed that Jan’s organ and tissue donations had helped at least 50 people.

He has exchanged letters through Midwest Transplant Network with a woman who received Jan’s kidney.

“I told her about Jan and what kind of person she was and I told her, ‘Do not under any circumstance feel any guilt about having this kidney. What happened to Jan was beyond anybody’s control and Jan would want you to have this gift,'” he said.

Gabel, of Midwest Transplant Network, knows firsthand about such life-saving donations. Seventeen years ago, he had a heart transplant on Valentine’s Day.

“The real heroes are the families who say, ‘Yes,'” he said.

To learn more about organ donation, visit Midwest Transplant Network’s Web site at www.mwtn.org.