Every nine minutes, though, another person is added to the waiting list.
While 169 million people in the United States were registered as donors as of 2021, not everyone who registers is able to donate. In fact, only three in 1,000 people die in a way that allows for deceased organ donation. That’s why more willing donors are needed — and not only those willing to donate posthumously.
Why don’t more people donate, at least posthumously?
According to The Atlantic, reasons include mistrust of medical professionals, including a fear that being on an organ donation list will prompt medical professionals to cut short life-saving care; a regard for bodily integrity—a flawed, religious-based, objection, which, by the way, the Catholic Church has rejected; and the so-called “ick” factor that amounts to a sense of disgust at the idea of organ procurement or transplantation. Others simply resist talking about anything relating to death.
Morristown Green, Commentary by Linda Stamato, August 17, 2022