Organ Donation

becoming an organ donor.

CENTRAL IDEA: The need is greater and greater for organ donors everyday, and it is a SPECIFIC PURPOSE: To persuade my audience about the importance and necessity of

relatively easy process to become an organ donor.

INTRODUCTION

I. Let me start by telling you a story about a kid named Jason.

A. He was 16 years old when he died in a car accident, only receiving his drivers license

about 3 months prior.

B. After he passed away, the American Red Cross and Tissue Service harvested

the organs from his body.

1. His heart valves were transplanted to a four year old boy.

2. His tissue and bone marrow went to six other people.

3. The small bones in his legs went to one child, enabling him to regain the

use of his legs.

4. Totally, seventeen strangers were helped out by the act of generosity that Jason

displayed.

a. Maybe one day, some of those people will return the favor for

someone else, thus perpetuating Jason's life forever.

C. I can remember back about five or six years ago, my uncle ended up having

emphysema.

1. He was on a lung transplant list, but after three years, and still no new lung,

he died a pretty painful death, basically suffocating over a two or three year

period.

D. That was the period in my life when I tried to learn a little about organ-donation

and how to make sure that I could donate my organs after I passed away.(Hell, I

Won't need them.)

II. Today, I am going to give you some background on organ-donation, how it can help people

in need of transplants, and how easy it is to become and organ-donor yourself.

TRANSITION:(Let me start by giving you some of the statistics on organ-donorship, so you

can see the dire need of donors today.)

BODY

I. As of 2:12 P.M. yesterday, there were 91,339 people in the United States waiting for some

kind of transplant.(United Network of Organ Sharing).

A. The United Network of Organ Sharing(UNOS) states that one more person is added

to this list every sixteen minutes, (about six in the time we have class today)

1. Unfortunately, the list does not grow at quite that fast of a rate because

seventeen people are taken off this list every day. Why? Because they die.

B. They die because there are just not enough donors in the United States today.

1. The average waiting list for a lung transplant, according to Lifesource,

is about six years.

2. The average wait for a lung transplant is around four years.

a. Unfortunately, there is a fifty percent higher survivor rate, when

these transplants can be performed in the first 18-24 months.

b. There is an almost 75 percent increase in the rate of survival in the

first 12 months of last stage organ failure

3. UNOS statistics show that between 1990 and 2005, the number of organ

donations grew at about a rate of two fold.

4. Whereas the rate of people who need those organs rose five fold.

C. Even though 2005 set records in the number of donors, and transplants being

performed, as you can see, there is still many more donors needed.

TRANSITION:(Now I'll show you how easy it is for you to become an organ-donor, and be able

the gift of life.)

II. Signing up to become an organ donor is not quite as easy as just asking for the little white card

that you can affix to the back of your driver's license, but almost.

A. First, to debunk several myths about donating your organs:

1. Most people think that having that little white sticker on the back of your

license is enough.

a. Although a legal document, the doctors will always talk to your

family first before any tissue or organ donation, so it is important

to make sure your family knows your decision to donate life.

2. A lot of people think that the wealthy, or well connected will be the first

to get transplants.

b. This is just not true either, what really matters is the medical condition

of the recipient, blood type,