Steve Jobs appeared in public this week, his first appearance since his liver transplant. According to the Wall Street Journal he was looking thin but “showed energy and enthusiasm”.

During his address Jobs told the crowd he was very happy to be there and that he had received the liver of a young adult who died in a car accident. “I wouldn’t be here without such generosity,” he said urging others to become organ donors too.

I am a huge fan of organ donation. It’s the easiest, philanthropic thing you can do. I look at it like the ultimate in recycling. Shit, if I’m not going to use it anymore someone else should.

With the advances in technology, I suspect the ability to extend life via organ transplant is only going to increase. Therefore the demand for organs is only going to increase. Knowing this I’d like to see some regulation that puts non-organ donors lower on the waiting list, under existing organ donors for patients waiting for a transplant. Why should someone who was never willing to give an organ, get one before a life long organ donor? It doesn’t seem fair or right to me.

I’m a big fan of “give what you expect to get”. If you would want your life to be saved someday by receiving an organ transplant you should be an organ donor. If you chose not to, that is OK but you shouldn’t expect to be ahead of those who have.

Steve Jobs has had tremendous impact in our society. But his biggest impact could have nothing to do with technology and for the hundreds of thousands of people needing an organ like him, I hope it’s not.