Facebook’s Organ Donor Option
Facebook unveiled another new feature of the timeline last week, the aim of which is to help those who urgently need medical organ transplants. Facebook have added an organ donor status option, which means users are now able to log onto their profile and add the date they became an organ donor, or register themselves as a donor if they aren’t already.
This move from Facebook comes in a bid to help millions of people all around the world who are waiting for a lifesaving transplant to raise awareness and add donors to the list.
To become a donor is very simple - all you need to do is go to your profile, click on ‘Life Event’, ‘Health & Wellness’ and then the option ‘Organ Donor’. You are then able to choose whether or not to make this information public or private.
There has been some debate over the past couple of years whether or not organ donation should be made compulsory. Since August 2011, if a UK resident applies for a driving licence in the UK they are required to actively decide whether or not they wish to become an organ donor. However in 2007, then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, suggested that organ donation must become compulsory as the NHS was unable to meet the needs for the number of organ donations required in the UK. This still hasn’t happened but a number of organisations including the BMA, wish to see the UK bring in a system of presumed consent i.e. active opt-out is the only way in which organ donation wouldn’t be a consideration.
The NHS Organ Donor Register Site states that “Our current experience in the UK shows that up to 90% of people support organ donation with more than 15 million people, or 25%, having joined the ODR.”
Surely the measures that Facebook is taking is a step in the right direction to increasing the numbers of organs donated.
For more information on how to register via Facebook to become an organ donor, please visit the NHS website.
