House Bill 30, proposed by state Rep. Joseph Petrarca, D-55th (Westmoreland, Armstrong and Indiana counties), should send chills down the spines of all residents of Pennsylvania, especially those parents and others who objected to Common Core teaching methods.

Petrarca’s bill, co-sponsored by 93 other state representatives, includes ideas from the Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Project classroom toolkit, an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, for teaching students in the state.

According to the toolkit introduction: “The primary mission of the OTDA Project is that awareness of organ and tissue donation will increase in the public schools throughout the commonwealth.

“Although the hope is that, as an extension, donor designation will increase among Pennsylvania high school students ... Whether it is deciding to have ‘organ donor’ on their driver’s license ...”

This sounds noble enough. Teach our children, in public schools in grades 9 through 12, that at age 16 they should mark “organ donor” on their driver’s license.

Hmmm, but where does the parent come in to this mix? What if a parent is opposed to organ donation? What if a 16 year old just decides to check the “organ donor” box without discussing it with his or her parents first? Where do the rights of the parents fit?

Are parents even aware this bill is being proposed?

Susan M. Shanaman, legislative liaison for the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association, states in her Guest View:

“The bill will mandate that from a very young age your child will be taught in school that organ/tissue donation is great and will enhance their life expectancy, that minorities are ineligible to receive donated organs from white individuals ... (HB 30 and SB 180 at Section 8628, IU13 Curriculum, The Decision of a Lifetime OTDA Classroom Toolkit Organ and Tissue Awareness Project).

Whoa - “minorities are ineligible to receive donated organs from white individuals.”

In what era are we living? This isn’t the 1940s and ’50s.

On page 22 of the classroom toolkit is the statement presented as fact: “Successful transplantation is often enhanced by the matching organs between members of the same ethnic and racial group.”

Just what does Petrarca propose to teach our children? Is segregation of organs in Pennsylvania just a House Bill away from the 1940s when blood was segregated?

Dr. Charles Drew, an American of African heritage, was a pioneer in blood plasma preservation. He organized the first major blood bank, and his methods saved the lives of hundreds of British soldiers and civilians through his “Blood for Britain” project during World War II.

He unfortunately had to resign as director of the U.S. blood plasma program following a ruling by the American Red Cross on Jan. 21, 1942, that “negro” blood had to be segregated.

Is Petrarca attempting a return to that era? Just what is he trying to slip by Pennsylvanians?

Petrarca has introduced this bill, which he calls the Donate Life PA Act, during the last two legislative sessions.

House Bill 30 must be stopped before this legislative session ends Nov. 30.

I urge everyone reading this Editor’s View to contact his or her state representative in Harrisburg and say House Bill 30 is reprehensible and must not be allowed to go any further in the legislative process.

Deb Palmieri

editor

Parkland Press

Northwestern Press