Do you know of anyone who has ever had a critical need for an organ transplant? According to a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimate, roughly 95,000 people currently need an organ transplant, and more than half of this number includes ethnic minorities.
From time to time, we learn of famous individuals who have either donated or received working organs from living family members and colleagues. As we honor this level of sacrificial commitment, many of us may find ourselves more challenged in following suit during our natural lifetimes, than upon our inevitable demise.
Some persons may consider the whole idea of donating "body parts" to be strange, and possibly in conflict with traditional teachings of faith. In that regard, one might be well-advised to investigate those teachings to confirm the extent of any principled basis not to donate.
Some of us might be comforted in knowing that simply completing and carrying a donor card could enable each of us to benefit someone who greatly needs our healthy organs once they are no longer needed to sustain our lives.
Items that one can donate include organs, tissue, stem cells and blood. One's donation choices include doing so as a living donor, after brain death, after cardiac death, and as a whole body donor.
To confirm whether you are eligible to donate, click this link.
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Over half of the 98,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year. Over 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result.
There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren't willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.
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