“Facebook has introduced a new “status update” that allows you to proudly share with all your friends your intent to be an organ donor. Not already registered as a donor with your state? No problem. With a few clicks, Facebook ushers you to the appropriate registry, where you can quickly make it official. With a permanent and prominent display on your Facebook site, you are telling your friends that you intend to give unselfishly to others, so that they may live a healthier life. Your personal commitment just might encourage each of your (on average, 190) friends to consider doing the same.
“This small tool is no mere novelty; it will save lives,” Frist proclaims. And according to his numbers the program is working as spikes in registered organ donors have occured in various locations around the country.
But how does Frist know that more registered donors will save lives? Because, as he reports, 113,00 people are currently in need of a donated organ. “Imagine a small child tied to a dialysis machine, a young mom whose liver is failing from a virus, or a 40-year-old uncle who, without a transplant, will die within six months from a failing heart. Last year, more than 6,600 people died before an organ became available. With better public awareness, most would be alive today.”
Question is would better public awareness really solve the lack of organs?
Let’s break down the numbers.
Not all of those in need of organs are the same. Of the 113,000 some need organs that are necessary to live, like a heart. So for those people, more registered heart donors is exactly what they need. The only way such an individual can get a donated heart is if someone else dies.
Now, kidneys are not like hearts. We are all walking around with two kidneys and we only need one to live. Also, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing more than 60,000 people need a kidney transplant, which means that according to Frist’s statistics more than half the total number of Americans in need of an organ transplant, need a kidney.
The National Kidney Foundation is actually on a mission to try and increase the number of live kidney donors with their End the Wait campaign. Live donations are more effective than cadaver donations with a greater likelihood of success.
But do you know what would end the wait for donated kidney faster than either the Kidney Foundation’s campaign or Facebook’s registry effort?
Legalize kidney sales. If people could get paid for donating a kidney as they do for blood, semen and bone marrow donations more people would donate and the list of sick people suffering waiting for a transplant would be much shorter.
There’s nothing wrong with Facebook’s effort, but when it comes to kidney transplants the free market would be vastly more effective.