KEYLA HOLMES
campus editor
keyla.holmes@my.tccd.edu
The government announced plans two weeks ago to overhaul the organ transplant system by breaking up UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing), the only entity ever to operate the system.
According to HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administrator), over 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list.
“I think if people were more aware of organ donations and how many people it can save, I think they would become donors,” South student Chelsea Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson made the decision to become an organ donor after working in healthcare and watching people struggle.
“It was people who needed to go to the dialysis all the time and didn’t have very good kidneys that made me think that if something ever happened to me, I’d want to be able to donate my kidneys to someone who is struggling,” she said.
While organ donors do help the system, South student Katie Ferrera recognizes how it comes down to personal preference.
“I guess it depends on whether or not you’re comfortable with giving it away,” she said. “It’s positive that you’re helping someone, but you’re also giving away something you may potentially need.”
South student Hannah Johnson is also an organ donor. It’s a box she just checked whenever she got her license. While she doesn’t know much about the system, she decided to become an organ donor because she knew there were people in need.
“I am not informed at all,” Johnson said. “I just assume that whenever you check it, you’re letting law enforcement know that you would donate your organs if something happened.”
Johnson said that she knows very little about what being an organ donor actually means, and thinks that gaining more information would cause positive change in the overhauled system.
“There’s probably not enough information out there to inform people of how they can help, so I feel like that would be a necessary step to try to help people get the organs that they need,” Johnson said.
Along with the issue of the system being overcrowded, South student Layla Chadwick said that she has concerns about people of color being disproportionately affected.
“I think (organ donations) are a good thing, but there needs to be a better way to make it equal for everyone,” Chadwick said.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, African Americans make up the largest group of minorities in need of an organ transplant.
Johnson said what she thinks could improve the organ donor system.
“I think spreading information through social media would be helpful, like advertisements and stories telling how this could be beneficial for people,” she said.
