The Lowdown: Organ Donation

Organ donation is becoming more and more a miracle-maker for people all over the World. Not only can you save someone's life for signing up to be an organ donor, but if something bad ever happens to you, an organ donation can save your life. So let's learn more about organ donation and discover if it's something that you would like to get involved with.

There are so many stories of people who are living with new hearts, new lungs... even new eyes! When people get hurt, or get a disease, or just get old, some of these organs stop working and they need new ones or they will die - this is where organ donor miracles happen. Science has become so awesome that doctors can take organs from the living and people who have just passed away, and use them to save the lives of the people who need them to live. Here is a list of all the organs that can be donated:

• Eyes
• Heart
• Lungs
• Liver
• Kidney
• Pancreas
• Intestines
• Skin
• Bones
• Tendons
• Femoral Veins

 

Who Can Donate?

Just about anyone, at any age, can become an organ donor as long as you are healthy and free of most diseases. Anyone younger than 18 needs to have the consent of a parent or guardian. After you become an organ donor, you have the option of donating some of your unnecessary organs (like your 2nd kidney), or donating your organs if you die.

Encouraging Courage

The biggest problem that most people have with donating organs is talking about it. It takes a very brave person to think about donating their organs, because you have to think about life and death. Most people don't want to think about what will happen after they die, so it's hard to sign up to be an organ donor. However, if we all were comfortable with the fact that everyone dies sooner or later, then maybe we would gain the courage to sign up for organ donation so we could even have the chance to save multiple lives after we die.

Kind of a Karma

Karma is when you do something and it creates a wave of effects that usually come back to you. Like when you smile at someone, that person smiles and it catches on and sooner or later someone smiles back at you, but you were the one that caused the whole wave. The karma of organ donation is very similar. If you donate your organs and it inspires your friends to donate, and then their friends... it is very possible that someone in this wave of karma might donate an organ that saves your very own life. Even if you don't sign-up, wear a green ribbon to spread this idea of miracles!

Let's Do It!

You're going to need your parent's permission, so the first thing to do is to ask them to help. Then, you can go to http://www.OrganDonor.gov to find what to do in your state if you live in the USA, or http://www.cst-transplant.ca/en/ if you're Canadian. If you live in any other country, it won't be hard to find how to become a donor... just google "organ donation" and the "country" you live in.

Have your say...

Have you considered becoming an organ donor? Tell us what you think below in the comments...