The Gift of Life
April 7, 2021
For the past 23 years, I’ve been carrying around the National Kidney Foundation’s Uniform Donor Card in my wallet. It’s tattered and barely legible, but always there as a reminder of what’s legally noted on my driver’s license - that my final wish is to give the Gift of Life to help save and improve the lives of others.
April is National Donate Life Month, a month-long campaign dedicated to raising awareness about becoming an organ, eye, and tissue donor. Anyone can register – the process is easy - and the impact is life-saving and life-changing for others.
Becoming an organ, eye, and tissue donor is a personal choice that I hope you’ll take the time to consider. Decide if this is the right decision for you with the help of these three steps:
Learn the facts – understand what it means to be a living or deceased donor.
Identify your options – determine what you need to do to become a donor.
Take action – if you decide to become a donor, take action and register with your state.
Get the facts: Making your decision to become a living and deceased donor should be influenced by facts, not assumptions and myths that you may have previously heard and believed. The following can also be found on the New Jersey Sharing Network, Donate Life America, US Department of Health and Human Services, and Health Resources & Service Administration websites.
• As of February 2021, 107,726 people are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant.
• Another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 10 minutes.
• There is an average of 95 transplants daily in the United States.
• Every day, 20 people die because they didn’t receive a life-saving organ transplant.
• In 2020, there were 33,309 deceased organ donation transplants, and in 2019 there were 37,719.
• People of color makeup 58% of those waiting on the national organ transplant waiting list.
• All major religions support donation as a final act of compassion and generosity.
• In the United States, it is illegal to buy or sell organs and tissues for transplantation.
Deceased Organ Donor
• One deceased donor can save up to 8 lives and enhance the lives of over 75 others by donating their heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, intestines, pancreas, cornea, and tissue.
• Consideration for donations occurs after the patient is declared clinically and legally dead.
• Funeral arrangements of your choice are possible after the donation, including viewings.
• 95% of Americans favor being a donor, but only 58% are registered.
• Deceased donor matches are determined by blood type, body size, degree of sickness, donor distance, tissue type, and time on the waiting list.
• The donor’s family or estate incurs no fees for the organ donation.
• Registering on your state’s donor registry is legally binding, and your family cannot change this upon your passing.
Living Organ Donor
• You can save two lives - the recipient of your donation and the next person on the organ transplant waiting list.
• You can donate one kidney, lung or a portion of the liver, pancreas or intestine, blood (i.e., red and white blood cells), healthy cells from bone marrow and umbilical cord blood, skin after certain surgeries, and bone after hip and knee replacements.
• As a living donor, you will work directly with a transplant center and not with the national organ transplant waiting list.
• One out of four living donors is not biologically related to the recipient.
Identify your options: Becoming an organ, eye, and tissue donor is your choice to make, and only you can make this decision. If you decide that you want to be a donor, the following options will help you give others your Gift of Life:
• Register to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor in your state through the Division of Motor Vehicles or online with your state registry. To find your state's website, go to www.organdonor.gov.
• You can designate specific wishes about what you want to donate (it's not an all-or-nothing donation process).
• Your family cannot legally change this decision after you register to be a donor, so make sure to let them know your wishes today.
• You can update your donation designation at any time on your state's website.
• Include your decision about organ, eye, and tissue donation in your Advanced Directives, a document that includes your end-of-life decisions.
During this time of excessive loss due to the COVID-19 virus, let's also remember those who passed away while waiting for an organ transplant. Also, think about those who will still be waiting for life-saving (and life-enhancing) transplants once the pandemic is behind us.
After learning the facts about organ, eye, and tissue donation, contact your local transplant center if you want to become a living donor. Register with the state if you're going to be a deceased donor, include this in your Advance Directives, and let your family know.
Registering to be a deceased donor today ensures that your wishes will be met at the time of your death, be it by natural causes or tragically from a heart attack, stroke, or car accident. Your donation, whether it’s your heart, kidney, liver, corneas, skin, or tendon, can save up to 8 lives and enhance the lives of more than 75 others.
If you are not currently registered to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor, please consider becoming one. This final act of giving would be you selflessly giving someone else the Gift of Life.