This morning,
which lets users post to their Facebook timeline that they’ve chosen to be an organ donor. The idea is that friends will choose to share the story of their decision with friends, hopefully tapping into Facebook’s natural virality to encourage others to do the same. (Hey, it’s worth a shot.) Facebook is also helpfully linking to state and national organ donation registries, where appropriate.
While obviously a move worthy of mention given Facebook’s size and scale, the story has been
as a new feature that “will save lives.” That’s going a bit far. It is one thing to post on Facebook, it’s quite another to actually impact change.
Far be it from me to call out Facebook’s move as a pre-IPO publicity stunt (am I really that cynical? sigh), but the truth is that organ donations have traditionally struggled for a number of reasons, none of which is because sharing your opinion on Facebook was too hard. , for example, has a handy Q&A about donations which addresses what are, frankly, very human fears about the process – namely, things like “if I agree to donate my organs, the hospital staff won’t work as hard to save my life,” and “maybe I won’t really be dead…”
Fear of being alive, but not really alive enough to stop a donation, is a deep-rooted, intrinsically human fear. Will reading a Facebook status update from a friend change any that? This is a country, after all, where we entertain ourselves with trifles like Grey’s Anatomy, for example, where hot, young surgeons treat patients’ bodies like pieces of meat they just want to get their scalpels into. Is it shocking that we now fear this is how doctors actually operate – that the lure of the potential organ donation trumps that of life-saving? They may be irrational myths, and highly offensive to doctors, but there they are. Facebook thinks it can overpower TV and movies’ influence on popular opinion? Well, I’ll grab my popcorn for that. That’s a battle worth watching, at least.
In addition to the above fears, there are other concerns about organ donations that the Mayo Clinic addresses as myths. There are mistaken religious concerns, worries over whether you can have an open-casket funeral (you can), and health and age-related issues (I’m too sick/old/unhealthy to donate), which stop people from marking “yes” when making this critical decision. (A decision we traditionally are forced to consider while at the DMV, for what it’s worth.)
What will the actual impact be, then, of this whole “post your organ donation status to Facebook” feature? Raising awareness, increasing organ donation sign-ups? Sure, it has that potential mainly because Facebook is large enough that even if a very small fraction of the user base jumps on board, it can have an effect.
Plus, Facebook isn’t entirely new to the area of trying to impact social change. It supports , for example…although it hasn’t provided info on child recovery from doing so. In Japan, it lets users …but then again, that’s because doing so is popular in Japanese culture.
The concern here is that real-world activism and “social activism” . Posting to Facebook that you are a donor and actually following through with a donation, whether living or deceased, takes a bit more effort. Like actually clicking through on the links to the organ donation registries, for example. Then actually filling out the online forms. Actually clicking submit on said forms. Actually telling your family members about those forms. Etc. Etc.
Simply shouting out your opinion on your Facebook profile is not enough, legally speaking, to turn one into a donor…although it could be used to convince by doctors to convince wary family members of your wishes’, or assist in legal battles.
At the end of the day, this is an awareness-raising effort – it can be effective the way that wearing ribbons pinned to your lapel is effective, perhaps. It paints Facebook as the social engineer, starting a conversation between friends. That’s good stuff. But at what scale will a feature update impact actual change? We can’t possibly know yet – for starters, the feature is tucked away under “life events,” an under-utilized part of the status update box, which many don’t know exist. Plus, Facebook usually serves at the platform for communication – it doesn’t typically try to put words and thoughts in users’ mouths. But really, the question about the potential for actual “life saving” comes down to whether or not Facebook users can make the leap from posting an update, to clicking a link, to actually doing something.
I’m hopeful that it can, because imagine the impact when Facebook uses its power for good. But will Facebook users actually follow through? It’s too soon to say.
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Organ Donation is an Act of Giving That Truly Does Change -- And Save -- Lives
I am one of the fortunate ones and now it's my turn to help others. This posting is about a different kind of individual philanthropy.I just recently returned from an amazing trip to Durban, South Africa where I participated in the 19th World Transplant Games. I have been competing in the Transplant Games since 1996. I am not the most skilled athlete by any stretch of the imagination but the fact that I am able to compete is what matters. You see, the summer after 4th grade I failed a sports physical. I had protein in my urine. I had a biopsy done at the Detroit Children's Hospital and it was diagnosed with kidney disease. Life was pretty
every week it seemed like I was visiting a doctor and it wasn't my idea of fun. As time went on and my condition was stable, the weekly visits turned into monthly visits, then into yearly checkups. Then came the day that would forever change who I am. It was the end of September of my senior year of high school and I almost died. My kidneys suddenly, without warning, went into end stage renal failure and I was in a coma for four days. My new life consisted of many hospital visits because I was now in need of dialysis treatments to stay alive. Dialysis was extremely hard for me as an 18-year-old. Not only did my body not tolerate the treatments very well but it was tough to see other people, some my newfound friends, doing dialysis at the same time with me and then not show up one day because they succumbed to the harshness of kidney disease.In the years since being diagnosed with kidney disease I have had two kidney transplants, graduated from college twice (undergraduate and graduate degrees), and have traveled all over the world, thanks to both professional opportunities and being part of the transplant community and competing in the Transplant Games. It's hard to think back on that time in my life and think I am that person who went through all of those struggles but I know I am. Now I know that my role in life isn't to dominate in sports, but to try to educate people on the importance of organ donation. Because of the anonymous gift of life that somebody gave to me, my donor -- my hero, I am still here today and having a wonderful life. Not everyone is as fortunate as I am though, so I feel it is my responsibility to try to spread the word so people understand that there are more than 115,000 people in the United States awaiting for the gift of life right today (* according to ). Sadly not all of these people are fortunate to make it to the day where they can receive a transplant because there are not enough donors.If you haven't signed up yet to become an organ donor I suggest you think about how you might be able to help somebody out someday with the most important gift of all. It is also possible that someday you, a close friend or a family member could be one of the unfortunate ones waiting for somebody else to register to be an organ donor so you can see why educating people about the importance of organ donation helps everyone out. If you were touched by my story then
to become an organ, eye or tissue donor today and help me spread the word! Organ donation is an act of giving that truly does change -- and save -- lives.This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in celebration of #GivingTuesday, which will take place this year (2013) on December 3. The idea behind #GivingTuesday is to kickoff the holiday-giving season, in the same way that Black Friday and Cyber Monday kickoff the holiday-shopping season. We'll feature at least one post from a #GivingTuesday partner every weekday in November. To see all the posts in the series, follow the conversation via #GivingTuesday and learn more .And if you'd like to share your own #GivingTuesday story, please send us your 500-850-word post to .
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