As a lot of people know from watching me do my daily life junk, I love to read. I am aware this article is titled Why You Should Think About Being An Organ Donor, and I am getting to the point, so hold your horses. I was reading a book about a girl who needed a new heart, because her heart was on the wrong side of her body and therefore it was failing. After a long wait, she receives a new heart from a recently deceased girl her age. The book explains how there are thousands of people who need organs to live, but since there are so few donors, many die before receiving the organs they need. 

A person can be a living donor or a deceased donor. A living donor must be at least 18 years old and the donor can choose to donate a kidney or a piece of a liver. A deceased donor can donate their corneas, skin, liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, and a range of partial organs. 

To keep everyone reading this entertained, let’s play a game of organ donor myth or fact. I will provide sentences about organ donation and you, the reader, get to choose if you think it’s a myth or fact. The answers will be at the end of the statements. Okay, let’s begin. 

1. When a person is an organ donor, medical professionals won’t treat them as well as a nondonor. 
2. A person can’t donate if they have any medical issues. 
3. A deceased donor can save up to eight lives.
4. I am too old to donate organs. 
5. I am under 18 and not able to be able to fill out an organ donor card.

The first sentence is a myth, all doctors and medical professionals sign an oath to take care of a patient to the best of their abilities, organ donation does not come into play until the donor is pronounced brain dead. The second sentence is also a myth, many organs get donated even if the donor has medical issues. The third sentence is a fact, many organs can be donated from one donor to many recipients. The fourth sentence is a myth, organ donors can be any age. 

The fifth sentence is also a myth, a minor can register to be an organ donor with parents consent. 

To sum up this article, please, donate organs. A dead person has no need for their organs, but many people with health problems do.  Who knows, the next person who winds up on the waiting list for an organ could be you or me.