The Pros and Cons for Being an Organ Donor

Local news sources has recently reported that April has been designated as Donate Life Month thanks to John C. McDonald Regional Transplant Center and the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency teaming together to make this happen.

Personally I think this is amazing. I decided early on that I wanted to be an organ donor. I was first introduced to the concept during driver's ed. We had a serious talk about what signing up to be a donor meant. They gave us the good things that came with it and also the bad. I felt that this was the best way to introduce the idea and to educate the students to help them make their own educated opinion. Which is what I am going to do for you.

Pros for being an Organ Donor:

• Giving people who need an organ a second chance at life.
• Save MULTIPLE lives. One body can help multiple people who need different types of organs.
• Connect Us Fund made a great point that the "knowledge that a small piece of a loved one lived on also provide a sense of comfort, especially if the recipient lives on to enjoy a long and fruitful life."
• If you're body is sent to scientists then you helping extend research for the human body.

Cons for being an Organ Donor:

• Connect Us Fund said that, "Most of the time, the family of the deceased donors are not informed that the body will be kept on life support until the organ will be harvested. So the donor’s body remains warm and breathing until it is taken off life support. In most cases, this can be traumatizing for the surviving family."
• Live Strong suggested something that might be that the donor does not usually get to choose who the organs go to, and perhaps an organ will go to someone of a different faith, political viewpoint or temperament than the donor.

KTBS reported that at this moment "more than 118,000 men, women and children are listed on the national transplant waiting list in the United States, more than 2,000 of those in Louisiana."

Click here to find out how you can get involved or to find more information.