Organ Donation

So, this morning GMA (that's Good Morning America, for all those who don't know) featured a news story this morning that turned on the proverbial waterworks. Basically, the story of two mothers meeting; one, a mother of a 13-year old girl, Tara, who died tragically in a skiing accident, the other, a mother of 2 children who received Tara's heart after her own had been failing for 5 years. You can click here to watch the full video, but essentially it ends with a tearful hug and Tara's mom asking to listen to her daughter's heart. After I had gone to the kitchen to blow my nose and wipe the stream of tears from my face, I asked myself, what would stop someone from being a donor after watching something like that? That's when it hit me, this is just such an instance when a focus group would be ideal for collecting qualitative data on people's beliefs, values, attitudes and knowledge about organ donation.

A few years ago, while volunteering at my high school, I sat in on a few presentations on organ donation. One was by a mother who lost her daughter in a car accident, but donated her organs. Another was by a woman who was waiting for a heart transplant. The third one was by a man who donated a kidney. They were all very interesting to listen to, but probably the most interesting was the kidney donation. It wasn't just because he donated a kidney. It wans't because he rode his bike from Philadelphia to San Fransisco a month after he donated (though this is very impressive). The impressive, interesting and compelling part of his story is that his kidney donation was completely random and voluntary. In other words, he walked into a hospital and said, "Hey, I have 2 kidneys, but I really only need one, so can you take one out and give it to someone else who really needs it?"

Going off of these two anecdotes, I think it would be interesting to get 2 types of focus groups together. Ones that would discuss reasons why people have a) decided to join the registry or b) decided to donate an organ, such as a kidney, bone marrow, or a part of their liver. Then compare qualitative results from these people with another set of focus groups that discuss people's reasons for a) not joining the registry or b) not donating when and/or if they have been asked to. For me it is a simple yes, if I can help multiple people's lives after I am dead, Seven Pounds style, I'm all for it. I just don't understand how some people can be so against it. I mean I do, but I don't. I think the key would be to target reasons why people who aren't deadlocked by religious beliefs and values choose not to, as I have a feeling that many of the reasons may be tied to misconceptions and lack of knowledge about organ donation and the process for doing so. If you're interested in becoming a donor, visit http://www.donatelife.net/.