The hardest decision the Rodriguez family made was to consent to allow Francisco "Paco" Rodriguez to be removed from the machine that was enabling the critically injured boxer to breathe.

The easiest decision the grief-stricken family made was to allow the young fighter's organs to be harvested for transplant.

"My sister-in-law, my parents, and all of us agreed that this was something that needed to be done," Alex Rodriguez, Francisco's older brother and manager, said after the 25-year-old super bantamweight from Chicago was allowed a peaceful death Sunday night at Hahnemann University Hospital, 2 days after his 10th-round technical-knockout loss to North Philadelphia's Teon Kennedy at the Blue Horizon.

The scheduled 12-round bout was for the vacant USBA 122-pound championship.

Rodriguez' brain ceased to function after he was hurt.

One of his uncles had been on a waiting list for a kidney transplant for what Alex said was "a long, long time." After it was determined that he was a match with Francisco, he'll receive one of his nephew's kidneys.

"And my daughter was born with just one kidney," Alex noted. "Thank God, she's healthy. But if she needed a transplant, I'm sure Paco would have offered her one of his."

Others - strangers to the Rodriguez family - also will live longer, fuller lives because of Francisco.

The Gift of Life Donor Program, the nonprofit organ-procurement organization serving eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, was contacted by Hahnemann as part of its clinical procedures to determine whether Francisco could be an organ donor. A professional athlete in superb physical condition, he will provide seven organs to five recipients.

Organs are allocated to the United Network for Organ Sharing, and generally matched to those in most urgent need of transplant.

"Paco's going to continue walking through life in those other people," Alex said. "We lost our champ, but we know he'd be so happy to know he's helping others. God invited him to see heaven, and he stayed there, looking down at the rest of us."

The Gift of Life Donor Program has facilitated 28,000 organ transplants in its 35-year existence, but there always is work to be done. Locally, 6,000 patients are awaiting transplants, and 104,000 nationwide.

For more information on becoming an organ donor, call 1-800-DONORS-1 or go to www. donors1.org. *