Knowhow-Now Article

In May of 2012, social networking site Facebook introduced a new feature that allows users to display their organ donation status and makes it easy for those currently not on the donor list to register on their country’s current registry. Facebook's founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said that he hoped this latest endeavour would be a way for people to spread awareness about organ donation.

The current system for organ donation in Australia is operated on an opt-in basis, meaning that Australians choose to join the donor list and aren’t automatically entered into it. This is the same system that’s used in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece and several other countries across the globe. The other main voluntary system is an opt-out system, which is used by countries such as Spain and Austria. The opt-out system automatically designates all citizens as organ donors, but allows anyone to opt-out if they so choose. Most countries that use the opt-out system have much higher donation rates than those using the opt-in system.

In Australia, as in many other opt-in countries, the debate over switching to an opt-out system is on going. In a recent online survey, 55% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that Australia should have an opt-out policy regarding organ donation. However, 23% either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the idea of an opt-out system.

The survey also revealed that 34% of respondents are already currently on the organ donor list. Though that’s a much larger portion than those who participate in blood donation (14%) and those who are on the bone marrow donation registry (1%), Australians on the transplant list still must wait, on average, 6 months to 4 years before receiving an organ donation.

What the paid for online surveys also showed is that many Australians haven’t joined any of these health registries, but plan to do so at some point. In fact, 38% of survey respondents said that, despite not currently being on any of those three registries, they do plan on registering. Thus, a large portion of people in Australia do wish to be on the blood, organ and bone marrow registries, but for some reason or another haven’t gotten around to joining yet. This recent endeavour by Facebook, and all the publicity that goes with it, could serve as a reminder for them to follow-up on their intensions.

If Facebook’s promotion of organ donation proves successful in raising the amount of organ donations worldwide, it could potentially do the same for bone marrow registries and blood donor lists. This has excited advocates of these causes who see social networking as a potential game-changer.

Fiona Roy writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.

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