re: Organ Donation: Why don't more people do it?

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This article says that 18 people die everyday on the organ transplant waiting list, and just one organ donor can save or improve up to 50 peoples lives.

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One organ can actually save up to 50 lives because of the chain reaction of organ swaps (mostly kidneys).

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A paired kidney exchange, also known as a “kidney swap” occurs when a living kidney donor is incompatible with the recipient, and so exchanges kidneys with another donor/recipient pair.

Two live donor transplants would occur. Suppose there were two donor/recipient pairs, Donor and Recipient 1 and Donor and Recipient 2:

Donor 1 would give a kidney to Recipient 2.
Donor 2 would then give a kidney to Recipient 1.
This kidney paired donation transplant enables two incompatible recipients to receive healthy, more compatible kidneys. All medically eligible donor/recipient pairs may participate in the paired kidney exchange program.

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This can expand to include many more people. For example,

60 Lives, 30 Kidneys, All Link

So a person refusing to donate could be the missing link in a potential exchange.