Though the United Network for Organ Sharing didn't have time to check recipient Vincent Liew's new kidney, it's not like they had any warning: donor Sandy Cabrera didn't even know she had cancer. After suffering a stroke, she was raced to St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, where doctors said she would never recover, and spoke to Cabrera's daughter about organ donation. more ›

New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky almost lost his daughter, Willie, at 4 years old when she needed a kidney transplant, and again a decade later when her other kidney failed. Her struggle to find a donor was hardly unusual; some 10,000 New Yorkers are currently waiting on a list for donors, and part of the reason finding them is so challenging is because many people don't consent to organ donation on their licenses. So this week Brodsky introduced a bill that would automatically enroll all New Yorkers as organ donors, unless they opt out. Such a "presumed consent" law would be the first of its kind in the U.S. more ›

Over the weekend David Byrne's Playing the Building installation opened, ostensibly making the Battery Maritime Building the city's largest instrument. The weekend boasted some long lines for those who wanted to get their fingers on the ivories -- unless of course you were Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, who strolled to the front Saturday to take their turn. The retrofitted organ and all of its pneumatic tubes will be there every weekend through August 10th, from 12 to 6 p.m. more ›

Over the weekend the Washington Post took note of New York City's latest effort in saving people's lives; reportedly we'll be deploying "a special ambulance to collect the bodies of people who have died suddenly from heart attacks, accidents and other emergencies and try to preserve their organs." The program is funded by the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration, and allegedly would add nearly 35,000 additional transplants to the current annual count. more ›