Organ Donation the Theme of “Community Conversation” Later Today
Prince George, B.C. – The Kidney Foundation will host a “community conversation” around the topic of organ donation this afternoon.
Director-at-large Paul Duperron says currently 20% of British Columbians are registered as organ donors and says the goal is to increase that by 50% over the next five years.
“This is sort of a brainstorming meeting to try to get people from throughhout the community to come whether they’re against organ donation or for it. We want to hear both sides to see what the barriers are to them not signing up.”
He admits one frustration is that a lot of people think they’re registered as a donor when in fact they’re not.
“20% are signed up and there’s 50% who think they’re signed up and 85% who say they would sign up.”
One thing that isn’t in doubt however is the need for more donors.
“500 people need transplants in BC and out of those 300 need kidneys. In Prince George 85 are waiting,” says Duperron.
He says the average wait time for a kidney is 4.8 years but says five to 10 years “is the norm.”
Anyone interested in joining the conversation can do so from 1 pm to 3 pm at the Coast Inn of the North.
Admission is free. You can learn more at www.kidney.bc.ca.
Comments
The province should pay for viable organ transplantation by offering to help the family of the donor with funeral costs which have become grotesquely out of hand. From a productivity standpoint, this makes sense. Increase the speed of donation, decrease healthcare costs and get the patient back to work for longer. A $5,000 investment in viable donors could lead to big savings for taxpayers. And people get to save lives too. A triple win.
Sine Nomine, in another post (Friends of Pine Valley)you suggest that Government should not be involved in or subsidize a business.
In this post you seem to suggest that Government should become involved in the “sale and purchase” of organs. I don’t think that the Government should be paying or subsidizing any of the funeral costs of the donor. This doesn’t really help the donor, does it? Are we to approach a deceased party’s family to offer them a bribe for their loved one’s organs?
While Government should and could do more to make the public more aware of the need for organ donors and of the process/requirements to become a donor, somehow offering a bribe to get an organ doesn’t quite sit right with me.
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