Become an Organ Donor

Become an Organ Donor

By this time tomorrow, twelve people in America who are alive right now will be dead. Not because they were in a car wreck, not because they were gunned down, not because their time had come, but simply because they could not be given a life-saving transplant in time. Twelve people will die because the organ transplants they need are not be possible. Money is not the issue here nor is scarcity. There are more than enough potential donors who pass away each day who could meet all the needs of people on the waiting list. The problem is, those potential donors die without leaving instructions that they are prepared to help someone live after them and this is a problem on an enormous scale. Currently, nearly sixty thousand Americans are waiting for a life saving organ transplant. Hundreds of thousands more would benefit from a life enhancing tissue transplant and yet, every day twelve people die while awaiting a transplant and every sixteen minutes another name is added to the waiting list. But here is the real tragedy; it really is so easy to fix this problem.

Part of the problem is the way we handle organ donations. Americans, who want to make this sort of gift have to opt in- this is, indicate on a driver's license that when they die, they want their organs to be made available. Many European and Asian countries take the opposite approach; in Singapore, for example, all residents receive a letter when they come of age informing them that their organs may be harvested unless they explicitly object. In Belgium, which adopted a similar presumed-consent system twelve years ago, less than two percent of the population has decided to opt out.

Further complicating the situation in the U.S. is the fact that your family can overrule whatever decision you make. The final say is left to your surviving relatives, who must make up their minds in the critical hours after brain death has been declared. There are as many as fifty body parts, from your skin to your corneas, that can save or transform the life of potential recipient, but for many families lost in grief, the idea of dismembering a loved one is more than they can bear. The U.S., like all medically advance societies, has struggled to find a way to balance an individual's rightful sovereignty over his or her body with society's need to save its members from avoidable deaths.

Another critical need is a bigger pool of donors from which to draw matches. Over two million people die each year in the U.S., but only about twenty-five thousand of them are suitable sources for organs. The principle requirements for this select group: good health and sudden death as in a traffic accident or stroke. Of those who are eligible, only one-sixth actually gives up their organs. Though a 1988 federal policy requires hospitals to inform families of potential donors about making "a gift of life," physicians are often reluctant to approach grieving families.

In the meantime, the shortage of donors forces doctors to make wrenching decisions about who lives and who dies. Though medical considerations are paramount, subjective judgments often come into play. Can an uneducated patient handle the sometimes-complex follow-up care required after surgery? Should a relative be approached and asked to give up a piece of himself? Should an alcoholic be granted a new liver? Such dilemmas can be far more complex than any challenge posed by