Rhea’s idea for this initiative began in early September 2017.
As a teen who was just starting to get her driving permit, she was glancing over the Drivers’ Ed curriculum and noticed that the form at the DMV asked whether one wanted to be an organ donor without providing much information about what organ donation actually is. She began asking around at her high school and was shocked to realize that most of her classmates did not register as organ donors because they either felt like they did not have enough information to make an informed decision or were influenced by common myths surrounding organ donation.
Due to her interest in geography, Rhea began reading about the organ donation programs in other countries and came across an article about organ donation in European countries. The article displayed a graph that showed large discrepancies in the number of registered organ donors in geographically, culturally and ethnically similar European countries, a surprising difference that stemmed from having an opt-out system rather than an opt-in system for organ donations at the DMVs.
Rhea began reading more about the dire need for more organ donors and for a more efficient organ donation system in California, and due to her interest in neuroscience and psychology, began researching articles published by Stanford University about the substantial influence of “default neglect” and the “status quo bias” on people’s decision making. Since medicine is her passion, she decided that she would also contribute to organ donation on this front as well by investigating innovative methods to improve the conversion rates and success rates for organ transplants so that more lives can ultimately be saved. She began pursuing this further and soon created this Gifting Lives Initiative.
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