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Does Social or Financial Status Affect Organ Donation?

As you’re reading these words, close to 120,000 adults and children are sitting on a waiting list for organ donation. If you read this again in a week, an estimated 154 of them may have already passed away. Organ donation is a vital service, and unlike much of modern medicine, which has benefited from advances in synthetic reproduction, there are no substitutes for human organs. They must be donated voluntarily from a willing and generous person.

The business of blood and organ donation struggles against a slew of myths and misinformation that often inhibit its noble cause. Some believe that being of a socioeconomic disadvantage (read; poor) will bar them from becoming an organ donor, but that is absolutely untrue. Anyone can sign up to be an organ donor.

Will My Social or Financial Status Affect My Ability to Donate?

No. Never. Absolutely anyone can sign up to be an organ donor, regardless of race, sex, or any kind of social status. Every potential donor’s health is screened with the appropriate testing in the exact same way. A healthy organ from a homeless man is just as precious as one from the president. They are equally life-giving. Never let your perception of your social standing in life prohibit you from joining the donor registry. Whoever you are, your gift of life is priceless.

Why Be an Organ Donor?

One organ donor can provide multiple organs, potentially saving several lives. Every moment, thousands of patients' lives hang in the balance, waiting for a compatible organ to become available, with no guarantee. The complicated nature of tissue matching makes the odds of timing compatible organ donors with the right recipient extremely difficult. To be successful, the organ donor registry needs to be populated with a wide variety of willing donors from all ethnic backgrounds.

In short, they need as many people as possible to sign up to increase the likelihood of successful recipient match. Read the story of Charles to gain an understanding of the impact an organ donor can have.

Sign the pledge and become an organ donor today.

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