Facebook Organ and Tissue Donation Feature

Author: The Hastings Center
Published: 2012/09/12 - Updated: 2021/11/08

Contents: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Related Publications

Synopsis: Facebook introduces feature that lets people state their wishes to become donors in an attempt to reduce long waiting lists for organs and tissue.

In California alone 3,900 people signed up, compared with 70 on a typical day. After 2 weeks rate of registration dropped, but strategies for harnessing the full potential of social media to achieve a sustained increase in registration are suggested.

Introduction

Analyzing the Facebook Effect on organ and tissue donation - Hastings Center Fellows who helped draft federal organ donation act say Facebook and other social media can greatly expand the gift of life.

Main Content

Organ Donation

Organ donation takes healthy organs and tissues from one person for transplantation into another. Organs from one donor can save or help as many as 50 people. Organs you can donate include Internal organs, kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, intestines, lungs, skin, bone and bone marrow, and cornea. Most organ and tissue donations occur after the donor has died. But some organs and tissues can be donated while the donor is alive.

When Facebook introduced a feature that enables people to register to become organ and tissue donors, thousands did so, dwarfing any previous donation initiative, write Blair L. Sadler and Alfred M. Sadler, Jr., in a commentary in Bioethics Forum, the blog of the Hastings Center Report, which analyzes the "Facebook effect" on donation.

The Sadlers, Founding Fellows of The Hastings Center, helped draft the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, established in 1968 to standardize state laws on the donation of organs and tissue after death. Blair Sadler, a lawyer, is a member of The Hastings Center's Board of Directors. Alfred Sadler is a physician.

Their commentary tracks the response to Facebook's introduction, on May 1, of a feature that lets people state their wishes to become donors in an attempt to reduce the long waiting lists for organs and tissue.

"By the end of the day of the announcement, 6,000 people had enrolled through 22 state registries," the Sadlers write.

In California alone, 3,900 people signed up, compared with 70 on a typical day. After two weeks, the rate of registration returned to previous levels, but the Sadlers suggest several strategies for harnessing the full potential of social media to achieve a sustained increase in registration.

"Perhaps missing is the repeated cuing that can help drive individual action," they write. "An annual day to celebrate registered organ donors would be one way to enhance cuing. Asking state donor organizations to provide Facebook with real-time updates on the growing number of registered donors might be another."

"State registries could include social sharing on their sites, so that once a person joins the registry, he or she has the option to share this information via Facebook, X, and other social networks which should drive awareness among friends and family," they write

The Sadlers also suggest that social media companies allow donor registries to advertise at no cost.

"Facebook has challenged other technology companies to show corporate leadership and has demonstrated the power of social media to encourage altruism."

Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by The Hastings Center and published on 2012/09/12, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.