Altruism: Make a difference after death

Will you make a difference after death?

Photo courtesy of
zazzle.com

                More than 14,000 Americans did by becoming organ donors last year.

As of March 2012, more than 110,000 patients currently wait for organ transplants.

Last year, less than 30,000 patients on the waiting list received organs.

Kidneys, pancreas, livers, lungs, hearts and intestinal organs can all be donated by deceased patients while living patients can donate a single kidney or a portion of a liver, lung, intestine or pancreas.

When I first considered becoming an organ donor last year, the idea of someone else using my organs made me uncomfortable.

I, like a good portion of Americans, have heard myths and horror stories about donation. But after reading statistics and success stories, I could no longer believe the myths.

Myth: Many religions do not support organ donation.

Fact: All major religions support organ donation, seeing it as a last act of love and generosity toward the more than 100,000 Americans who need a life-saving transplant.

                Myth: Medical personnel will try to kill patients to harvest their organs.

Fact: Doctors and families only consider organ donation after declaring a patient brain dead and all options to save his or her life have been exhausted, said Tim Hite, co-advisor for St. Bonaventure’s Medical Emergency Response Team. This may help increase the 30 percent of Americans who know how to become organ donors.

Myth: Organ donation is costly to donors and their families.

Fact: Organ donation came at no cost to the more than 8,000 deceased and 1,000 living donors in 2011.

I want to save a life.

And three people, and their choices, have inspired me to do so.

                Allen Knowles, the director of SBU’s Franciscan Health Care Professions Program, said becoming an organ donor only seemed fair.

                “There is always the possibility I will want to be a recipient at some point,” said Knowles.

                Knowles helped me realize I might one day be the recipient and not the donor. So why not become a donor and give back to someone else in need?

Photo courtesy of
nytimes.com

                Rick Ruzzamenti willingly donated a kidney that set into motion the world’s longest donor kidney transplant chain with 30 kidneys donated and 60 lives changed.

                In a donor chain, someone looking for an organ finds a family member or friend to donate that same organ to someone else.

                Ruzzamenti showed me my choice to donate could spark a cycle of giving.

                Nick Muccia, a St. Bonaventure student, died unexpectedly as a sophomore in 2010. His family chose to donate his organs because they knew Muccia, a Boy Scout, would want his leadership to be carried on, said his father.

Photo courtesy of
serve.mt.gov

                Through Donate Life, Muccia’s lungs went to a 61-year-old woman, one of his kidneys to a 40-year-old mom of three and his other kidney and pancreas to a 31-year-old art teacher. Muccia’s organs saved all of them from life-threatening diseases, said his sister.

                Muccia helped me see how powerful the choice to donate could be and what effect I could have on absolute strangers.

                Not everyone can be motivated through pure goodness, though.

                Controversy over paying people to become organ donors has become an issue.

                In America, The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 prohibits the sale or purchase of human organs affecting interstate commerce.

                But in Iran, citizens can be paid, as of January 2010, the equivalent of about $1,200 and a year of health coverage to become an organ donor.

                I understand an increase in organs translates into a decrease in people on a waiting list, but being paid to make a choice to save a life takes the altruism out of the act. Acting from the heart, doing something that may not have a direct benefit or choosing to help a complete stranger should be enough motivation.

When people ask me what I want to do with my life, I always say to save the world or make a difference. It does not matter how I achieve these goals, just as long as I achieve them.

There have been nights I have spent laying in bed with knots in my stomach, worrying about whether I have made a difference in the last 20 years, or if I will ever make a difference in my life.

I spend so much time thinking about what I have done in the past or what I do in the present that I forget about what I could do in the future.

The future is unknown, though.

 I could die tomorrow.

Or I could live to 93 or 127 depending on what technology emerges.

              Regardless, I never know when my life may end.

So why worry about when I will make a difference or how I will do so?

Why not act instead of thinking about acting?

And why stop when I die? Why not leave one lasting legacy in the form of an organ?

I think I will.