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All You Need to Know About Being An Organ Donor

The need for organ donors is very high and growing every year. Around nineteen people die each day because they never received a transplant due to a shortage of donors. According to a survey last year, by Donate Life America, 43 percent of people are unsure or wish not to give their organs donated after death. Last year, in the United States, more than 28,000 lives were saved from donating organs.

One donor can help around 50 people from the combination of organs and tissue.

The Need for Donors

Organ donors are important because they save lives. It gives people a chance to live by giving a kidney or a pair of eyes to see. Even a heart can be given to someone in need. There are about 80 million registered organ donors in America. From January to April 2, 2010, there have been 2,198 transplants and 1,139 donors. Approximately 106,804 people are on a waiting list in America. A new name is added to the list ever fifteen minutes.

Things to Consider

The pros to being an organ donor are important to many and consist of many important issues to people such as giving a person a chance to see again or giving an organ to save someones life. The cons of donating an organ include a conflict in religious beliefs. Some religions do not allow giving or receiving any organs after death although, Catholics, Protestants, Islam, and some forms of Judaism allows you to donate your organs. Normally, a donor does not get to pick where there organ is going. There are medical risks involved such as developing a disease or condition after the transplant that interferes with the process of the remaining organs.

How to Be a Donor

Becoming an organ donor is simple. Every state has a donor registry to sign up with giving a donor card to sign and carry. Another way a person can sign up for organ donation is to show it on a driver's license. A person under eighteen can become a donor with parental consent. It is suggested a person talks with family about their wishes for organ donation because a form needs to be signed at the time of death.