Few Registering for Organ Donation
April 13, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
Donate Life America reports that the organ donation registry includes a mere 38% of licensed drivers. A new online survey of 5,100 US adults sheds some light on those numbers. The survey was fielded by Survey Sampling International and supported by Astellas Pharma US, Inc.
According to the survey, there are some misconceptions floating around about organ and tissue donation. Only 
43% of respondents understand that it is impossible for a brain dead person to recover, and 44% mistakenly believe that there’s a black market for organs and tissue in the US.
And here’s the really big one: Only 50% of respondents correctly think that doctors will try as hard to save their life even if they know their wish to be an organ donor. Doctors allowing patients to die for organ donations is a myth we’ve all heard. And it may be a large part of why so many don’t register for organ donation.
If you want to be a donor, but aren’t sure you can, don’t worry. Anyone can be a potential donor regardless of age, race, or medical history. If you want to become a donor, but don’t make your wishes known, someone’s life could be needlessly lost.
Donate Life America is celebrating National Donate Life Month in April. And you can become a fan on Facebook or simply visit Donate Life America to register and learn more.
(Image via stock.xchng)
I wonder if one of the problems recently with few registering as organ donors is that women don’t feel as altruistic. There is a terrible disparity between the 22,000 annual kidney transplants fro deceased donors done in America and the 79,000 people on the waiting list for a kidney — the most commonly transplanted organ. It’s staggering! With this shortage of donor organs, many Americans who have chronic kidney disease wait years for a transplant and many thousands die before they ever make it to the first stage of the process.
What’s worse — if you happen to be female — is that YOU have less of a chance just getting on the kidney transplant list. It’s hard to believe (or, is it?); but, it is true. Due to gender bias, fewer girls and women get on the list. It’s life and death sexism! Ethic Soup has a good post reporting on the research for this bias:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/04/life-death-sexism-fewer-girls-women-on-kidney-transplant-list.html
Apparently the referring physicians(mostly nephrologists)who put your name up for inclusion on the waiting list for a kidney, think of women as more frail and less likely to have a successful transplant. In reality women do just as good and sometimes better than men when receiving kidney transplants. For God’s sake, let’s do something about this!
Sharon, interesting ideas. I saw the study about older women receiving fewer transplants, but not much about women in middle age. I did find this article (based on study) about women receiving fewer liver transplants:
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4AO8S120081125?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
If this is indeed a problem, then it’s time for professors in medical school to start addressing it with current students.