In the year since Logan’s Law went into effect in Iowa, almost three-thousand people signed up as organ, eye and tissue donors when getting a hunting, fishing or fur harvester license through the DNR.
Heather Butterfield, spokeswoman for the Iowa Donor Network, says they couldn’t have hoped for a better response. “When Logan’s Law first went into effect, we really didn’t know what to expect,” Butterfield says. “There weren’t a lot of states to model after with this, so we are thrilled with the impact Logan’s Law has had in the first year — 2,900 new registrants have joined Iowa’s Donor Registry, which is really incredible.”
The law passed the Iowa legislature in the spring of 2019 and took effect that September. While most people register as donors when they renew their driver’s license, backers of Logan’s Law wanted to reach out to a different audience.
“This is just another opportunity for people to register as organ, eye and tissue donors,” Butterfield says. “Most people do register at the DMV but now, with a lot of the changes they’ve made, people may go five, six or seven years in between the time they have to renew their license, whereas, when someone’s getting a hunting or fishing license, they’re typically doing that every single year.”
Logan’s Law is named after Logan Luft of Charles City. He died in 2017 at the age of 15 and saved many lives as he was an organ and tissue donor. “Logan just loved the outdoors, he loved hunting, he loved fishing,” Butterfield says. “Logan’s family were really the ones that championed the passage of this law. They were in Des Moines, working with legislators to get this bill passed and they are just so thrilled with the impact that it has had.”
More than 1.8 million Iowans are registered as organ, eye and tissue donors. Nationwide, there are about 112,000 people on transplant waiting lists, including about 600 in Iowa. Butterfield says a single organ donor can save up to eight lives, while a single tissue donor can enhance as many as 300 lives.