A Rockland County woman who spent her life pushing for easier ways to become an organ donor is now the namesake of a bipartisan bill in Washington. Reps. Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer unveiled federal legislation this week that would add organ-donation signup boxes to tax forms and benefit applications nationwide, honoring Lauren Shields, who died in June at age 26.
Shields grew up in Stony Point and spent much of her life navigating organ transplants herself. According to CBS News, Lawler, a New York Republican, and Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, announced the measure this week, with Lawler saying more prominent donor signup opportunities could increase participation and save lives. The bill would require organ-donation signup boxes to appear on federal tax forms as well as on applications for government benefits.
A Lifetime of Transplants and Advocacy
Shields received a heart transplant as a child and later needed a kidney, which her mother, Jeanne Shields, donated to her in 2020, according to Rockland News. The same report confirms Shields was a Stony Point resident who received her heart transplant at age nine. Lohud has separately reported that Shields spent years working to change New York's organ-donor laws and system, pushing specifically for donor signup through the Department of Motor Vehicles and for lowering the minimum donor age to 16.
Jeanne Shields attended the announcement of the federal bill at Westchester Medical Center, according to the seed reporting. She said her daughter believed it was her duty to pay forward the gift of life, and she said she hopes Lauren's spirit will inspire Congress to act in her honor. Jeanne Shields also urged the public to help save someone's life in the future.
The Law Lauren Shields Helped Create
Shields' advocacy as a child helped drive passage of New York's Lauren's Law, which was enacted in 2012 and took effect on October 3, 2013. The law changed the state's driver's-license and non-driver-identification application process, requiring applicants to respond to the organ-donor registry question rather than skip past it, per the same Rockland News account. A copy of the original bill language on file with the New York State Senate shows applicants were required to complete the organ-donor registry section and select an answer, such as “Yes” or “not at this time,” rather than leave it blank.
Lawler and Gottheimer believe their new measure will find support in Congress, the station reported. The proposal could create tens of thousands of new organ donors, according to the same report, by putting the signup opportunity in front of people filling out tax paperwork or benefit applications rather than leaving it to chance at the DMV.
How Big Is the Need
Estimates of the national organ-transplant waiting list vary by source. CBS News reported more than 100,000 Americans are on the organ-transplant waiting list, while a separate snippet from OrganDonor.gov placed the figure at more than 108,000 people as of April 2026. Kidneys alone accounted for roughly 95,492 of the people on that list as of late July 2026, according to data published by OrganDonor.gov.
Research on how to move those numbers has shown mixed but sometimes striking results. A field experiment described by the American Marketing Association found that a low-cost behavioral tweak raised actual donor registration from 4.1 percent to 7.4 percent, an 80 percent increase, and researchers estimated that scaling their best-performing version across Ontario could generate roughly 225,000 additional registrations a year. A separate multifaceted education campaign in two Michigan counties was reported in research published by PubMed Central to have produced a 200 to 300 percent increase in registrations compared with historic rates.
A Local Tribute Still Pending in Albany
Back in Rockland County, a separate piece of state legislation would honor Shields closer to home. State Senate Bill S10666, introduced in July, would ceremonially dedicate the Nature Center at Rockland Lake State Park to Shields and require signage recognizing her while providing organ-donation information to visitors, according to Rockland News. That bill is currently sitting in the Senate Rules Committee, the outlet reported, with no indication yet of further movement.
New York lawmakers have revisited organ-donor policy before. State Senate records show the chamber passed a bill in 2017 aimed at making Lauren's Law permanent, following an earlier unanimous vote on the same goal in 2016, according to the New York State Senate. Whether the new federal measure named for Shields will see similar momentum in Washington remains to be seen.
