Organ Donation

The dot is not enough. By dot or check mark I am referring to the drivers licence indication so many of us have on our drivers licence. The reason the drivers licence is not enough to let emergency room doctors know that you are an organ donors is that in the event you are involved in an accident your licence will not arrive at the hospital with you. After an accident you are transported to the hospital and your vital information often is being used by police or other emergency officials that arrive on the scene to work the accident. If you wish to donate organs, tissue, bone marrow.... you should register yourself online at
http://www.donatelife.net/
using this website the emergency room doctors have instant access to the organ donor registry. With organ donation time is very critical so having information at their fingertips really helps the doctors to know what they need to do with the patient in front of them.


Another note about the organ donation website is that you have control over your status meaning you can put yourself on or take yourself off as you wish; you can also pick and choose what you would like to donate.


A misconception that people have and I would like to dis-spell is that if you are registered to donate organs the doctors will I repeat will do everything possible according to your wishes (as stated in your medical power of attorney form or advanced health care directive) to keep you alive. The doctors won't let you die to simply harvest your organs they are bound by the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm.
Hippocratic Oath