A Chicago hospital on Wednesday brought together four heart-lung-kidney transplant survivors in an effort to encourage people to register as organ and tissue donors.

Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from Pennsylvania's newspapers:

Saving lives through organ donations should not mean murderers go free

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two Indiana women who died last month are among only a handful of American women who have donated their uterus so that other women might have a chance to give birth to their...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — State officials are marking National Donate Life Month with a stark statistic: Nearly 9,500 New Yorkers are currently on waiting lists for donated organs that could save their...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's health minister on Monday launched a drive to tackle a shortage of donor organs with a reform that would make most people potential organ donors unless they...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A surgeon will discuss at the next Omaha Science Café what it means to be a living organ donor.

The speaker will be Dr. Wendy Grant. She's a professor of surgery in the division of transplantation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a member of an organ transplant team.

The event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Slowdown, 729 N. 14th St.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — When Kentucky overhauled its driver's licenses to comply with federal security rules, it added another change: Licenses will last eight years instead of four.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman whose son died from a drug overdose has had a chance to hear his heart beat again in the chest of an Ohio man who received it as an organ donation.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A revision to Pennsylvania's law governing organ and tissue donations is going into effect, and backers say it will improve survival rates for transplant patients.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday signed the bill that passed both legislative chambers unanimously earlier this month.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is finalizing the first major update to the organ donation law that's been in place for a quarter century.

Gov. Tom Wolf's office said Thursday he plans to sign legislation that passed this week. That culminates eight years of work to update the law and resolve conflicts over how donors consent and the effect on criminal investigations.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska woman who was critically injured after a deer crashed through her car's windshield remains on life support to allow for the donation of her organs.

Sara Steiner, 35, was taken to Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy after the Friday crash, The Omaha World-Herald reported .

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White' sister has died — nearly three decades after her life-saving kidney transplant helped turn White into a champion of organ donation.

White's office says Doris Ivy died of natural causes on Friday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She was 85.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Starting July 1, those applying for a driver's license, renewing a license or adjusting to an expired license will have a much easier time signing up as organ donors.

All this thanks, at least partially, to a kid who isn't even of legal driving age.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Officials at the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division and New Mexico Donor Services are pushing for more residents to consider becoming organ donors.

The Motor Vehicle Division said Thursday that it signed up more than 46,000 new organ donors in 2017.

Throughout April, Motor Vehicle Division offices around the state have been displaying posters encouraging people to register as organ donors. Clerks also are talking to customers about the choice to become organ donors.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Efforts by the state and nonprofit organizations to boost the number of New Yorkers registered to donate their organs are paying off.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that more than 5 million New Yorkers are now enrolled in the New York State Donate Life Registry as organ donors. The Democrat says organ donation rates have reached historic levels thanks to several coordinated efforts.

BEAVER DAM, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin woman has turned the tragic death of her teenage daughter into a life mission to raise awareness and educate about organ donation.

Dawn Lyons-Wood received the 2018 Crystal Vision Award from the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin in March, The Daily Citizen reported. The award honors three individuals annually for their commitment and dedication to raising awareness for eye, organ and tissue donation.

Selected editorials from Oregon newspapers:

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The (Eugene) Register-Guard, March 21, on the gift of life:

DETROIT (AP) — Organs from people who died from opioid overdoses have helped fuel an increase in organ donations in Michigan, mirroring a national trend over the last few years, according to groups that oversee transplants.

Overdose victims are often younger than typical donors and can have healthy organs despite their addictions, The Detroit News reported .

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A northwest Missouri lawmaker has donated a kidney as part of a transplant chain to help his ailing wife.

KMBC-TV reports that Republican Rep. J. Eggleston, of Maysville, underwent surgery Wednesday. His wife, Cathie, has suffered from kidney failure for years. He wasn't a compatible donor for her.

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Charles Grugan's drug addiction took a toll on his family.

They tried to help him, but on Oct. 12, 2011, Grugan 33, overdosed on heroin. He never recovered.

While on life support in a regional hospital, doctors approached his family and showed them his driver's license.

Grugan had made the decision to be an organ donor when he was 18 years old.

His heart, liver and kidneys were successfully transplanted into three people.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Sara Everts and her husband took a yellow Ford Mustang convertible to visit Arizona and Nevada.

In March, Everts, 50, got a new liver from a deceased donor and vowed to live her life to the fullest in the wake of the operation, necessitated by a rare bile duct cancer. The transplant was her only chance for survival.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state is taking steps to make it easier to sign up as an organ donor.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a new executive order Monday directing state agencies to work to make it easier to enroll on the state's Donate Life Registry, the list of organ donors.

The order also directs officials to offer the choice of signing up whenever New Yorkers apply for state services or benefits. The state is also revamping the registry enrollment website to make it easier to use.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — JoAnne Burka has something in common with her boss.

There are the surface similarities, like how both currently work at The Printing Press, both have ink in their blood from full careers in the same industry and both live in Charleston. And they are both big animal lovers who have been known to share their food with their pets.

At first glance, that's where the commonalities end.

SKOWHEGAN, Maine (AP) — A Maine man told a 911 dispatcher he was killing himself and first responders needed "to hurry up" because he was an organ donor.

Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam says the man was still breathing when first responders arrived Sunday night but he died a few minutes later.

Bucknam says a handgun was found next to the man's body and the 911 call was made from a cellphone at the scene. He says the man discussed suicide in text messages and emails.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — An increasing number of organ donations in New Hampshire are coming from people who have died of overdoses.

New England Donor Services says in 2016, 92 organ donors had died of a drug overdose. WMUR-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2sNwyUn ) the percentage of organ donors who were overdose victims rose from 4 percent to 27 percent in a five-year timespan.

About a third of donors are overdose victims in New Hampshire.

GRAND RIVERS, Ky. (AP) — When the going gets tough — as it inevitably will on a bike ride that covers more than 2,600 miles — cyclist Bill Conner returns to the reason he's making his trek.

Conner's daughter, 20-year-old Abigail "Abbey" Mae Conner, died in January after she and her brother were found unconscious in a hotel pool in Cancun, Mexico. But Abbey's legacy has lived on: she was an organ donor, and her organs, eyes and tissue have been given to four men in need.