"In the fall of 1986, my brother Jason was killed in a car accident," says Heigl. "He was riding in the back of a pickup truck when he was thrown and suffered massive brain injuries."

Heigl's family waited while Jason endured an eight-hour operation, only to be finally determined brain-dead. Without the benefit of having discussed the possibility of organ donation earlier, the family was suddenly thrust into a second crisis.

"Like many families, we never considered organ donation would be an issue we'd be confronted with," says Jason's mother, Nancy. "But when it became clear Jason wouldn't survive, the entire family knew what he would have wanted."

The family unanimously agreed that organ donation was the best way to preserve Jason's legacy.

"It's hard for people to be thinking about organ donation for the first time in the midst of crisis," says Heigl. "But organ donation is the most honourable way to preserve the memory of someone you love. I learned through difficult experience that this is the right and humanitarian thing to do."

Jason's mother says she never had a moment's regret after his organs were given to other patients hanging on the brink of life. "Jason's body wasn't disfigured in any way from the procedure," says Nancy Heigl. "I always felt that Jason's organs were his last gift to a world for which he had the greatest affection."

The Heigl family agrees that organ donation is an important element of healing in the wake of sudden fatality. "When you have the chance to spare some other family the pain of loss you're going through, why wouldn't you do it?" says Nancy Heigl.