“You’re dying of kidney failure, and your wife is dying of massive injuries sustained during a car crash. Just as she passes away, she tells you to take her kidneys after she is gone. She dies. Are the kidneys yours? Two weeks back, New York’s Court of Appeals said ‘no.’ The court was adjudicating the strange case of Peter Lucia, who never got to see the legal turmoil his kidneys would cause. Lucia suffered a stroke in 2002, and his wife Debra found him brain dead on the floor of the family den. The two had never discussed organ donation, but Debra did what she thought Peter would have wanted. Peter’s lifelong friend, Robert Colavito, was suffering from renal disease and would die shortly without a transplant. She gave him Peter’s kidneys. Americans have no choice but to donate through an organization; it is illegal to exchange kidneys privately, and the federal government has designated an organ procurement organization for every American locality.” (12/29/06)