Organ donation

"Organ donor" redirects here. For the film previously known as The Organ Donor, see Spiral (2021 film).

The National Donor Monument, Naarden, the Netherlands

Organ donation is the process when a person authorizes an organ of their own to be removed and transplanted to another person, legally, either by consent while the donor is alive, through a legal authorization for deceased donation made prior to death, or for deceased donations through the authorization by the legal next of kin.

Donation may be for research or, more commonly, healthy transplantable organs and tissues may be donated to be transplanted into another person.[1][2]

Common transplantations include kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, intestines, lungs, bones, bone marrow, skin, and corneas.[1] Some organs and tissues can be donated by living donors, such as a kidney or part of the liver, part of the pancreas, part of the lungs or part of the intestines,[3] but most donations occur after the donor has died.[1]

In 2019, Spain had the highest donor rate in the world at 46.91 per million people, followed by the US (36.88 per million), Croatia (34.63 per million), Portugal (33.8 per million), and France (33.25 per million).[4]

As of February 2, 2019, there were 120,000 people waiting for life-saving organ transplants in the United States.[5] Of these, 74,897 people were active candidates waiting for a donor.[5] While views of organ donation are positive, there is a large gap between the numbers of registered donors compared to those awaiting organ donations on a global level.[6]

To increase the number of organ donors, especially among underrepresented populations, current approaches include the use of optimized social network interventions, exposing tailored educational content about organ donation to target social media users.[7] August 13 is observed as World Organ Donation Day to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.[8]

  1. ^ a b c "Organ Donation". medlineplus.gov.
  2. ^ Office on Women's Health (July 16, 2012), Organ donation and transplantation fact sheet, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, archived from the original on July 28, 2016, retrieved July 30, 2016
  3. ^ US Department of Health and Human Services. "Living Organ Donation". Organdonor.gov. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  4. ^ "Newsletter 2020" (PDF). International Registry in Organ Donation and Transplantation. December 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "At a Glance". Health Resources and Services Administration. US Department of Health and Human Services. February 2, 2018.
  6. ^ "Organ Donation Statistics". Organ Donor. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
  7. ^ Murphy, Michael Douglas; Pinheiro, Diego; Iyengar, Rahul; Lim, Gene; Menezes, Ronaldo; Cadeiras, Martin (January 14, 2020). "A Data-Driven Social Network Intervention for Improving Organ Donation Awareness Among Minorities: Analysis and Optimization of a Cross-Sectional Study". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 22 (1): e14605. doi:10.2196/14605. PMC 6996769. PMID 31934867.
  8. ^ "World Organ Donation Day: A brief history". Hindustan Times. August 13, 2021.