When I was a young adult driving in California, I rarely gave my donor card a thought. Back then, it was just another small piece of paper in my wallet. In those days, the confidence and optimism of youth crowded out any serious thoughts about real-life accidents, illness or disease. But now, decades (and decades and decades and decades) later, the realities of organ and tissue transplants have become a much clearer — and important — issue. Today, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. are on the waiting lists for organ transplants. Since the number of people who need a transplant is rising faster than the number of organ donations, an average of 22 Americans die each day waiting for a transplant. The United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, operates the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, or OPTN, a national computer registry that matches organ donors with waiting …