A Life-Saving Decision

By Grant Donovan

Every single day an average of 17 people die while crossing their fingers and

hoping a transplant becomes available. Unfortunately, the low number of organ donors

has translated into an extreme number of deaths over the past few decades. The

drawbacks to becoming an organ donor are non-existent. Therefore, all people should

donate their organs since they can save a dying life, thousands of names lie on the organ

donation waiting list, and their body is in no way disfigured.

To begin, every year, an estimated 6,000 people die while waiting for an organ

transplant. Fifteen to seventeen people die each day due to the lack of a donated organ.

According to the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliate (KODA) website, transplantable

organs include the kidney, heart, liver, lung, pancreas, and small bowel. Transplantable

tissues are bone, cartilage, skin, corneas, heart valves, saphenous veins, tendons and

ligaments. Of all the various types of organs and tissues you could donate to save the life

of another individual, why would it not be an obvious decision? According to the

Congressional Kidney Caucus , “Because of the lack of available donors in this country,

2,025 kidney patients, 1,347 liver patients, 458 heart patients and 361 lung patients died

in 2001 while waiting for life-saving organ transplants.” It does not matter who the

person is or what they have done wrong in their life, if all they need is an organ or tissue

transplant to survive then they should be able to locate one with no struggle.

With a U.S. population over 300 million, and around 100,000 Americans

registered on the United Network for Organ Sharing, something must be changed.
According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) website,

there are exactly 104,829 on the waiting list to receive an organ. A new name is added to

the waiting list every 14 minutes, yet the number of people signing up to become donors

doesn’t even compare. Organ transplantation is built upon altruism and public trust. If

anything shakes that trust, then everyone loses. In 2008, approximately 30,000 successful

organ transplants were performed. It has been estimated that twice as many could have

been performed if there would have been more donated organs. The entire country must

work as one to help make sure that all people in need of help can receive necessary

organs.

Many people shy away from becoming an organ donor because they fear that

there body will be disfigured by organ and tissue removal. At the funeral of the donor, an

open casket is still possible and in no way would a person be able to tell that the

individual was a donor. For eye donations, bone donations, and skin donations, no one

can see any difference. In class, KODA representative Ben Meibers stressed, “The

recovery of organs is carried out by well trained surgeons with the greatest care and does

not disfigure the body or change the way it looks.” It is a common myth that being an

organ donor will disfigure the body, however after a little bit of research it is learned that

the body looks the exact same before the surgery took place to remove the organ.

Everyone should donate their organs since they can save a dying life, thousands of

names lie on the organ donation waiting list, and their body is in no way disfigured. All

three of these points provide strong arguments to help in the life-saving decision one can

make to become an organ donor.

 References

"Did You Know?." KODA. 01/2009. KODA, Web. 9 Nov 2009.

<http://www.kyorgandonor.org/DidYouKnow.aspx>.

McDermott, Jim. "25 Facts About Organ Donation and Transplantation". Congressional

Kidney Caucus. 11/9/2009

<http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/kidneycaucus/25facts.html>.

Meibers, Ben. KODA

Wynn, James. "HRSA". OPTN. 11/9/2009 <http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/>.