Organ Donor facts

While investigating facts about Organ Donor Register and Organ Donor Card, I found out little known, but curios details like:

In Belgium, Poland, Portugal and France everyone is automatically an organ donor, unless they refuse beforehand.

how organ donors are matched?

A Brazillian billionaire announced, inspired by the Egyptian Pharaohs, that he will bury his $450,000 car with him. After receiving anger reactions from the media he posted: "It's absurd to bury something much more valuable than a Bentley: your organs. I am an organ donor. And you?”

What's organ donor?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what does it mean to be an organ donor. Here are 46 of the best facts about Organ Donor Opt Out and Organ Donor Registry I managed to collect.

what organ donor means?

Spain, Belgium and France have some of the highest Organ Donation rates but not because they voluntarily choose to. It is because the gov has changed the option on the license application where you have to check Opt-out to not be considered a donor. The default setting is that you are a donor.
In 2007 a Dutch reality show called "De Grote Organshow" pitted contestants in dire need of organ transplants against each other, resulting in outrage across the globe-- only to reveal it was a hoax that highlighted a serious problem. Over 50,000 people then signed up for the organ donor's list
Georgia lawmaker Doug Teper proposed using a guillotine for state execution so that death-row inmates could serve as organ donors
Organ transplant networks have started using a pairing algorithm to find kidney donation pairs and chains for willing but incompatible matches to swap donors resulting in a 50% increase in compatible matches
In Alaska more than 80% of adults are registered as organ donors, while in New York only 12% of adults are organ donors
While 95% of U.S. adults support organ donation, only 54% are actually signed up as donors.
To increase awareness about a lack of organ donors, a Dutch reality TV show had contestants in need of a kidney compete for a donation. It was revealed as a hoax, but within a month, 7,300 new people were registered as organ donors and 50,000 had requested paperwork to become a donor.
All Singaporeans over 21 years old are organ donors by default, allowing for the kidneys, heart, liver and corneas to be transplanted in the event of death from any cause. Individuals who do not wish to be donors must actively opt out, and few do: 97% of its citizens are organ donors.
From 2003-2009, only 130 people in China volunteered to be organ donors.
Scrubs season 5 episode 20 'My Lunch' was based on a real case from 2004. The plot is based on the May and June 2004 deaths of four Texas patients who received donor organs from a patient whose cause of death was originally determined to be a cocaine overdose, but later turned out to be rabies.

organ donor facts — What disqualifies you from being an organ donor?

Organ Donor data charts

For your convenience take a look at Organ Donor figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

organ donor fact data chart about State religiosity and organ donor habits — State religiosity and organ donor habits

Why organ donors should be compensated?

You can easily fact check why organ donor is good by examining the linked well-known sources.

In the United States, organ donation does not require consent from family members to proceed - the donor's decision while alive is final.

Chinese doctors often bow to donors as a sign of thanks and respect before removing organs upon death - source

In Belgium everyone is an organ donor unless you have specifically stated your refusal while you were still alive. - source

A billionaire announced he would bury a $500,000 Bentley for the afterlife "just as pharaohs did with possessions". After criticism, he revealed that it was a stunt. People bury more valuable things -- "what's absurd is burying your organs, which can save you many lives." Be an organ donor.

After receiving a liver transplant, a 9 year old girl's body assumed the blood type of the donor organ - fully accepting the organ and allowing her to be taken off anti-rejection meds. - source

What happens when organ donor dies?

Everyone 21 and up in Singapore is automatically made an organ donor under HOTA, provided you aren't mentally disordered. People have a chance to opt out of this, but people who haven't opted out are given a higher priority towards organ transplants versus people who have.

How organ donors?

Austria has an opt-out organ donor system, in which over 99% of individuals are registered donors. Germany's opt-in system has just 12%.

More widespread seatbelt use in the 90s caused a shift towards using 'less-than pristine' organs for donation (from 1960s-80s, majority of donors were young, head trauma victims without health issues- losing this pool meant finding alternatives)

It's possible to register as an organ donor in the United States online, even if you don't have a driver's license.

While 69 to 75% of U.S. adults say they would be willing to become organ donors, half of the families that are asked to consider donating the organs of a deceased family member refuse to consent. Families are able to refuse donation even when it is the expressed wishes of the deceased to donate.

In Portugal everyone is presumed a consentig organ donor unless manifested otherwise

Organ donors are alive when their organs are harvested?

That, as of 2017, the US State that has the highest percentage of registered organ donors is Montana, with 93%. The lowest is New York at 23%. The overall number of American citizens registered to donate is 42% (2018.)

The opioid epidemic has increased the number of organs available for transplant. The number of transplants in which the donor OD'd has risen tenfold since 2000. Even organs infected with HepC are being transplanted successfully.

The murder of a 7 year old boy in Italy led organ donor rates to triple. Dubbed 'The Nicholas Effect', thousands of lives have been saved as a result and there are 27 schools named in his honour.

Among a survey of select European countries, those with opt-out organ donor policies had a participation rate 6.4 times higher than those with opt-in policies, resulting in an estimated 16.3% more organs donated, and potentially lives saved.

False and unrealistic depictions of organ donation in primetime television shows, such as Grey's Anatomy and House, causes people to refuse to register as organ donors.

How to become an organ donor?

There are 118,000 people in need of a lifesaving organ transplant. 76,000 of them are on the active waiting list. Since Jan 2017 there have only been 3900 donors.

Women make up the majority of organ donors and the minority of organ recipients.

A human-pig hybrid was created in the lab in 2017 to eventually address the critical shortage of donor organs by growing human organs in animal hosts

In some cases of brain dead organ donors, the body is temporarily removed from ventilators and given the "apnea test". If it fails this test, it is hooked back up to ventilators until the organs are needed for transplant. The donor is referred to as a "beating heart cadaver" during this time.

In order for doctors to harvest organs, the patient's body still has to be alive. This means that the "dead donor rule," requiring patients to be dead before organ harvesting, is a misnomer.

In Spain, Poland, Wales, Portugal, and France everyone is automatically an organ donor after diagnosis of death.

In France you are automatically considered an organ donor at your death if your relatives does not specifically disapprove

Despite only having 130 voluntary organ donors and 1,770 donors from executed prisoners, China managed to perform 20,000 organ transplants in 2006

More than 12,000 people in the Netherlands have registered as organ donors since the broadcast of "The Big Donorshow", when three contestants vied for the kidney of a dying woman.

There is an organ donor waiting list published in Ontario, and shows how many people are currently waiting for certain organs

Organ donation rates are drastically higher in Austria, Hungary and France because every person is an organ donor by default. To remove yourself from being an organ donor, a person would have to go through the effort of "opting out".

China harvests the organs of members of the religious group Falun Gong on demand. China has the shortest wait time for organ transplants in the world, despite not having a significant organ donor system.

All requests made by death row inmates to become organ donors postmortem have been denied.

Despite only having 130 people register as voluntary organ donors between 2003 and 2009, China has short wait times for organs. 2 weeks for a kidney as opposed to 2-4 years in the UK and US.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Organ Donor. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Organ Donor so important!