PORTLAND (AP) - More than a million Oregon residents want to give their organs or tissues after death. But if would-be donors don't discuss the topic with their family, and their driver's license isn't in the hospital when they die, their organs are often left in place.

The state is attempting to cut some of the confusion by starting an electronic registry of anatomical donors.

The registry, which the state hopes to have in place by next year, will offer a portable list of donors that anatomical bank workers can check whenever someone dies, said Mike Seely, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Transplant Bank, which recovers organs in Oregon, southern Washington and western Idaho.

He said workers can use hospital computers to show family members the registry and say, “Mrs. Smith, your loved one indicated their wish to be a donor. We're here to help with that wish. What questions do you have?”

The state's organ and tissue procurement services have agreed to pay about $55,000 for the database, and the Oregon Donor Program is trying to raise $250,000 to $300,000 for an education campaign to support the registry's debut, said Mary Jane Hunt, the advocacy group's executive director.

About 1.4 million Oregonians have said they want to donate by requesting a ‘D' on their driver's license, Hunt said. That gives legal permission for donation, so those people will automatically be entered in a new registry, she said. Once the database starts, the Department of Motor Vehicles will continue to ask drivers if they want a 'D' on their license and tell them to register in the database, Hunt said.

Having an entry in the database would have made things easier for the family of Tiffany Wilcox, a 22-year-old woman who died in a car crash at age 22.

The hospital didn't have her driver's license and her parents had never discussed the issue with her. Because Wilcox was outgoing and worked as a nurse's aide, her parents decided she would want to donate.

Her tissues went to about 75 people, including a 9-year-old girl who had a cleft palate repaired and a Eugene woman who regained sight from a corneal donation.

“Then after her death, we found her driver's license and saw that she was a donor,” her mother, Charlotte Payne of Portland, told The Oregonian newspaper.

While that reassured her that the family had made the right decision, it also showed that a driver's license doesn't ensure donations.

“We do need to have the registry to ensure that takes place,” she said.