It’s good to donate organs
A monitor displays a cornea transplant surgery inside the operating theatre at Lions SightFirst Eye Hospital in Nairobi on August 12, 2023.
August 13 was the annual World Organ Donation Day. This is a global programme to create awareness of the importance of donating organs. The day also plays an important role in dispelling the myths about the process.
Organ donation is “when a person allows an organ of theirs to be removed, legally, either by consent while the donor is alive or after death with the assent of the next of kin”. Organ donation can save a needy person’s life and give them a new lease of life. One organ donor can save about seven lives.
People are afraid to let go of their loved ones. They feel uncomfortable when they imagine that a person is being dissected like a doll and their body parts placed in boxes. But one can select the organ(s), and number, they would like to donate.
By pledging to donate their heart, kidney, pancreas, lungs, liver, intestines, hands, face, tissues, bone marrow or stem cells, an individual has the potential to save others from death caused by chronic illnesses.
According to organdonor.gov, you can donate a kidney, a piece of your liver, and certain other organs and tissues while alive. The website says about 6,500 living donation transplants take place every year.
The theme of World Organ Donation Day 2023 is “Step up to volunteering: More organ donors are needed to fill this gap”. The aim of this theme is to make a global appeal to people to donate their body organs so that the need for any organ can be met.
Mr Surjit is a veteran journalist and freelance writer based in Brampton, Canada. [email protected].
