Have you thought about becoming an organ donor? Organ, eye and tissue donation is a lifesaving choice, dramatically improving the quality of life for thousands of Australians every year.
The problem is that although 80 per cent of Australians aged 16 and over support the idea of organ and tissue donation, only one in three are actually registered to donate with the Australian Organ Donor Register (AODR).
There are currently 1,800 people waitlisted for an organ transplant, with a further 14,000 Australians on dialysis likely to need a kidney transplant in the future.
Every single organ donor can save the lives of up to seven others, with multiple additional positive benefits flowing on from eye and tissue donation.
You can read numerous moving donation stories from across Australia here, at donatelife.gov.au.
By the numbers
The unfortunate fact is that very few people are able to become an organ donor at the time of death, regardless of consent. Generally the donor has to die in an intensive care unit or emergency department for the organs to be able to be successfully transplanted.
Further complicating matters, only around 2 per cent of people who die in Australian hospitals meet the criteria required to become a donor, for various other reasons. In 2023, only about 1,500 of the 84,000 people who died in hospitals were possible donors.
Requests to families for donation were made in 1,435 of these cases. Out of this group, 793 families said yes to donation, with only 513 people ultimately becoming life-saving donors.
This is why it’s vital to raise the number of people officially registered their desire to help others by becoming a potential donor.
At the moment the numbers are heading in the wrong direction, with 208,861 new donor registrations in 2022 dropping to just 179,813 in 2023.
How to register to be a donor
The Australian Organ Donor Register is a confidential national record of organ donation decisions across the country. It’s linked to your Medicare account and is administered by Services Australia.
Registering with the AODR provides a clear indication to your family that you want to be a donor in the future.
Organ donation will only go ahead with the support of your family, and specialist donation teams will never proceed with organ donation if your family object, so it’s important to have the conversation sooner rather than later if you want to help others in this way.
