Organ donation is defined as the donation of biological tissue or an organ of the human body, from a living or dead person to a living recipient in need of a transplantation (Wikipedia). The first organ transplant took place in 1954, when 23-year-old Ronald Herrick gave his identical twin brother, Richard, a kidney ("Curiosity.com"). The need for donations is growing every year. Over 100,000 Americans are on the waiting list in need of an organ. This crisis within the United States is growing rapidly because on average there are only 30,000 transplants performed each year. More than 6,000 people die each year from lack of a donor organ, an average of 19 people a day (Wikipedia). I believe that donating organs is a great thing and it is definitely something that people should do.
The first and foremost reason I believe that people should donate, it because it will save many lives. And organ donation can do more than just help one person, with all of the things that you can donate-skin, bone and marrow, cornea, and the assortment of internal organs-one donor can save or help as many as 50 people ("MedlinePlus-Trusted Health Information for You").
The second reason why people should be willing to donate is because is has been shown to help the families of the donors. An experiment, beginning in July 2008 and ending in December 2010, was done to analyze how families of donors responded to the donations. For those families that allowed donations to occur the family members expressed feelings of ‘peace and calm to manage grief’, ‘comforting feedback’, ‘improved knowledge, attitude and persuasion toward organ donation’, ‘closeness to God and being favored by Him’, ‘spiritual and emotional presence and connection with the deceased’ and ‘effective interaction with the recipients and the importance of successful transplant’. Despite feeling grief over their loss, they expressed subsiding sadness and emotional turmoil once the decision for
Cited: Khaleghi, Ebrahim. et al. "Exploring Families ' Experiences Of An Organ Donation Request After Brain Death." Nursing Ethics 19.5 (2012): 654-665. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Jan. 2013. MAYO Clinic Staff, . "Organ Donation:Don 't Let These Myths Confuse You." Consumer Health. Mayo Foundation, 3 2010. Web. 6 Jan 2013. . "Modern Medicine." Curiosity.com. Discovery, 29 2011. Web. 1 Jan 2013. . "Organ Donation." MedlinePlus-Trusted Health Information for You. US National Library of Medicine, 11 2012. Web. 6 Jan 2013. . "Organ Donation." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2 2013. Web. 3 Jan 2013.