Facebook Unveils New Organ Donor Option

Facebook (Menlo Park, CA, US) has unveiled a new organ donor status option for Timeline, a move designed to help millions more around the world that are waiting for a life-saving heart, kidney, or liver transplant.
Facebook users who are already organ donors can add that information to their Facebook Timeline, and those who are not organ donors can find links to official organ donation registries and instantly enroll. To register, the donor needs to go to Timeline, click on “Life Event,” and then “Health & Wellness.” The option for “Organ Donor” will then be available. At that point, the potential donors can add when and where they have registered, as well as relate their own personal stories on why they have decided to become organ donors.
As related in the official Facebook blog, the reason for the initiative was that “more than 114,000 people in the United States, and millions more around the globe, are waiting for the heart, kidney or liver transplant that will save their lives. Many of those people – an average of 18 people per day – will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need. Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis.”

“What we hope will happen is that by just having this simple tool, we think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, during an appearance on the May 1, 2012, edition of the ABC news show Good Morning America, to talk about the newly added feature. “That can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that’s out there.”

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004. As of April 2012, Facebook has more than 900 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics.


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