Facebook encourages organ donation

Facebook users in the UK and the US can now add a new ‘life event’ to their timeline – when and where they became an organ donor. The time and date obviously referring to signing-up rather than shedding an organ.

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If you’re not yet signed up, US users can click through to register with their local organ donation service (something not yet available in the UK).

To publicise your donation wishes, click on ‘Life Event’ at the top of your timeline, then select ‘Health and Wellness’ followed by ‘Organ Donor’.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, announced the launch of the new functionality on ABC’s Good Morning today.

“We think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends,” he said. “And that can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that’s out there.”
Because it’s not being a donor registry site, even if you do publicise your wish to be a donor on your Facebook profile, you also still need to officially sign up. You can do on the official site from the NHS.

The announcement is still quite hidden on the timeline so it’s unlikely it will be on many people’s radars. But Dr Andrew Cameron, the surgical director of liver transplantation at John Hopkins Hospital in the US thinks that harnessing the power of Facebook could be huge. “This is going to be a historic day in transplant,” he said.

The move has already encouraged an 800 percent jump in registrations in California.