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Reasons for Organ Donation

The principal reasons for organ donation are that it saves lives, it is one of the few acts of truly selfless charity and it could curb the incidence of "transplant tourism." Organ donation benefits those with crippling illnesses or those who have suffered life-altering accidents. Organ donation breathes life not only into those who receive the gift of your donation but into society as a whole, as you are remembered for your generosity even after you have died.

  1. The Gift of Life

    • When you donate an organ, you give another human being a fighting chance to live. According to United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 450,000 lives have been saved by organ transplants--and that's just in the United States. As reported in "The York Press," approximately 1000 people die each year in the United Kingdom waiting for an organ transplant.

    Selfless Charity

    • The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "charity" as "generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering" and as "a gift for public benevolent purposes." People waiting for transplants are needy; many of them are suffering needlessly. For example, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 48,773 patients were on waiting lists for kidney transplants in 2007. Common symptoms of kidney failure include organ failure, fatal heart rhythm disturbances and decreased mental function to the point of coma. Donating just one kidney can save another human being from suffering those symptoms.

    Curbing Transplant Tourism

    • Transplant tourism (also known as "medical tourism") means traveling to another country (most often a Third World or developing country) to purchase organs that are either unavailable or too expensive in the recipient's home country. According to Robert J. Stratta, MD, "Transplant tourists experience...higher incidences of acute rejection and severe infection."

      Transplant tourism endangers the lives of the poor who invariably make up the bulk of "donors" by encouraging a lack of proper facilities and care in the interests of expedience and profit. Transplant tourism also presents further difficulties in caring for the recipient in that usually there is little or no documentation of the transplant for use in later hospitalization or care. If legitimate organ donations were to increase, the demand for transplant tourism would decrease, and this, in the long run, would benefit the lives of both the donors and the recipients.

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