The Vital Role of Organ Donation: Saving Lives and Advancing Medicine

Through organ donation people have advanced knowledge, saved lives and expressed love for their fellow human beings, yet the need for organs remains great.

Knowledge

• The first transplant of a human kidney (1954); heart (1967); bone marrow (1973); hand (1998) -- these as well as comparable transplants represent major advances in medical science and technique, all dependent on organ donations.

Humanity

• For many people, a better life, or even life itself, may depend on organ donations, as in the U.S. alone over a hundred thousand are now waiting for organs, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Ethics

• Numerous religious groups, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others, allow organ donation as a way of expressing and acting on compassion, according to Transplant for Life.

Organs Needed

• Without organ donation, current demand would go unanswered for kidneys, hearts, lungs, pancreases, livers, intestines, skin, bone, bone marrow, and corneas, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Disparity

• The unanswered need is huge. Currently, the list of candidates for transplants in the U.S. exceeds 105,000 while the number of transplants that actually occurred from January through November 2009 fell below 27,000, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.