Opportunity of a Lifetime Essay

After reading this essay, one person may be added to the National Organ transplant waiting list. That one person can save or enhance more than 25 different peoples lives. The Donate Life Illinois is a group of agencies responsible for organ donations, education about organ donations and other helpful statistics to help people and save lives. The Donate Life Illinois group established that more than 6,500 people have died nationwide in the United States waiting for an organ transplant in 2011. An average of 18 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant (Organ & Tissue Donation Stats & Facts). Statistics can be overwhelming and confusing to understand, but one thing you can understand is that each number you read represents a person; a person that is waiting to be saved. This person can be a mom, a dad, a brother or a sister, someone important to someone else. Families try their best to try to help their loved ones search for organ donors. Not all patients are able to receive organs because the lack of organ donors. Through a simple two-step plan, which consists of educating more people about organ donations and changing the U.S from an opt-in system to an opt-in system, this could save those 18 lives lost each day. To start this two-step plan to fix the need for organ donors in the U.S is to educate the public about organ donations. Many Americans are not informed about this major issue of organ donations and or unaware of the lack of organ donors needed in our country. They may not realize that they can potentially become an organ donor themselves very easily. With the public becoming more educated, this will increase the number of donors and decrease the number of patients that pass away waiting for organ transplants. One major issue is the publics view about organ donations only occurring when they die. Organ donations are just as important for people that are living as well. For example, kidney transplants are in desperate need that a healthy living person can easily donate. In the essay â€Å"The Surgery Was Simple; the Process Is Another Story† by Virginia Postrel, she talked about her experience of being a living organ donor. She donated her kidney. She states, â€Å"A kidney don ation is a big deal to the recipient, but public perceptions exaggerate what’s involved for the donor† (Postrel, Virginia). The government should clearly explain how easily the procedure could be done. Kidney transplants require a few incisions just enough to get the kidney out. The recovery process is a couple days and you are the same person you were before. It’s not a life changing procedure. Deciding whether to donate is also another issue. She states, â€Å"Even relatively supportive transplant centers like mine make it easier to quit than to go through with it† (Postrel, Virginia). The government should promote organ donations. They should help the public understand that they could save many lives by donating. Organ donations are a very important in the U.S and the public needs to understand the importance of donating. The last part in the two-step plan to fix the need for organ donors in the U.S is to change the opt-in system to an opt-out system. The United States currently has an opt-in system, which individuals are asked to register their willingness to be a donor after their death . The opt-in system that our nation has currently is not very effective. â€Å"A 2005 Gallup poll revealed that more than half the population of the United States was willing to donate organs after death, but inefficiencies in the current system mean that even willing donors often end up not donating† (Carney, Scott). This is a sad statement that has been stated. This shows that there are people willing to donate but because of our system, its more difficult to pull through the procedure and unaware of how to become an organ donor. The government should come up with a solution to help these perfectly good donors willing to help others through an easier process such as an opt-out system. Donate Life America has a statistic that states, â€Å"90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to become a donor† (Statistics). By having an opt-out system, it would make it easier for people to get involved with organ donations and it woul d increase the number of organ donors significantly. Instead of â€Å"100 million people that are organ donors in the U.S† (Organ & Tissue Donation Stats & Facts), we could double this number to 200 million people with more people being able to become organ donors. Some people oppose the opt-out system because they are worried about their relatives not knowing the need for an opt-out organ donor registration, a mandate will be in effect. The mandate will require the DMV and Hospitals to ask people if they want to be on the opt-out organ donor list. Most United States citizens have a driver’s license, which means they have to renew it every couple years so it is up to date. The government can then require people that are renewing their license to be informed about the opt-out system and then they can decide whether they want to be removed from the organ donation list or not. In Hospitals, the policy can consist of requiring the patients to sign a document while they are checking into the hospital stating that they understand the opt-out policy completely for organ donations and can state if they do not want to be removed from the organ donation list. If the patient doesn’t want to become an organ donor, they have the right to register as a non-organ donor. This mandate will potentially eliminate the donors family’s claim that they did not realize that the donor need to opt-out of the list to become an organ donor. Through this simple two-step plan, this policy can increase the number of organ donors on the United States, and it will decrease the number of deaths due to the lack of organ donors. With the public becoming more educated about organ donations, people will be less hesitant to go through the organ donation process. The United States government can influence people to go through with organ donations and change the U.S system from an opt-in system to an opt-out system. Changing the opt-in system to an opt-out system will increase organ donors significantly as well because it will be an easier way to establish if the person wants to become an organ donor or not. By these two simple plans to increase organ donations, those 18 lives lost each day will be reduced because of the people wanting to help each other and donate their organs to the people in desperate need of donors. Works cited Carney, Scott. â€Å"The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation.† Patterns for College Writing. 12th ed. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford, 2010. Pgs 614-617. Print. â€Å"Organ & Tissue Donationï€  Stats & Facts.† Donate Life Illinois. Gammon Group, 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . Postrel, Virginia. â€Å"The Surgery Was Simple; the Process Is Another Story.† Patterns for College Writing. 12th ed. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford, 2010. Pgs 625-627. Print. â€Å"Statistics.† Statistics | Donatelife.net. N.p., July 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. .