Countless Benefits of Organ Donation By Hal Stevens

Families of individuals who decide to donate their organs often find that it helps them through their grieving process. They receive great comfort from the knowledge that something positive came from the death of their loved one.

For recipients of donated organs, organ transplants offer a second chance at life, enabling both them and their families to maintain a higher quality of life. Even the hope that there is a possible matching organ donor available can make a huge difference in the life of someone that is suffering from a serious illness.

In the United States, the waiting list is quoted to be about 96,522 people long for kidney donations, but only about one third of those patients are hopeful of ever receiving a donated organ.

Different organs have different waiting times and success rates because demand is significantly different for various organs. Alarmingly, three quarters of patients in need of an organ transplant are waiting for a kidney, and as such kidneys have much longer waiting times.

As an example, I'll point out that at the Oregon Health and Science
University, the average patient who ultimately received an organ waited only three weeks for a heart and three months for a pancreas or liver - but 476 days for a kidney, because demand for kidneys substantially outstrips supply.

All statistics indicate that there is a huge shortage of available organs of all types (including tissues) that could potentially save or drastically improve an ailing person's life.

Approaches to addressing this shortage include:

• Donor registries and "primary consent" laws, to remove the burden of the donation decision from the legal next-of-kin.

• Financial incentives for signing up to be a donor.

• A "dissent solution" (or way of "opting-out") in which a potential donor or his/her relatives must take specific action to be excluded from organ donation, rather than specific action to be included.

• Social incentive programs, wherein members sign a legal agreement to direct their organs first to other members who are on the transplant waiting list.

With increasing regularity, many hospitals employ organ network representatives who routinely screen patient records to identify potential donors in advance of their deaths. In some cases, organ-procurement representatives will request screening tests or organ-preserving drugs (such as anti-hypertension drugs) to keep potential donors' organs viable until their suitability for transplants can be determined and family consent (if needed) can be obtained.

This practice increases transplant efficiency, as potential donors who are unsuitable due to infection or other causes are removed from consideration before their deaths, and decreases the avoidable loss of organs. It may also benefit families indirectly, as the families of unsuitable donors are not approached to discuss organ donation.

It can be hard to think about what's going to happen to your body after you die, let alone donating your organs and tissue. But being an organ donor is a charitable and worthwhile decision that can be a lifesaver.

Understanding organ donation can make you feel better about your choice.

Hal Stevens owns the CemeterySpot family of websites that provide products, services and resource directories related to end of life topics. Services include the CemeterySpot FREE Online Memorial Listing Service and the CemeterySpot FREE Cemetery Property Listing Service.

Hal is also the author of several critically acclaimed eBooks specifically written to help people deal with end of life issues. His eBooks include topics such as: cremation, writing and delivering a eulogy, eco-friendly green funerals, funeral planning, organ donation, and buying and selling cemetery plots.

To find out more about these free services and resources, to learn more about his books, and to get a free gift, visit http://www.cemeteryspot.com