Needed: Organ donors

By Katheryne Lawrence, a third-year law student at Drexel University, writing for the Field Clinic on philly.com and Inquirer.com.

No matter how organs are distributed, organ donation in the United States is a win-lose proposition. When someone on a waiting list receives a lung, another person loses out. About 76,000 people in the United States are on active waiting lists for organs.

America has been rooting for Sarah Murnaghan, 10, to receive a transplant. The spotlight has been on the appropriateness of the rules for organ allocation. And while those rules try to ensure fairness, they do not change the fact that there are not enough organs for everyone.

Eighteen people die each day waiting on the list. To solve this, we need more donors. In the wake of Sarah's story, more people have signed up. But only 45 percent of U.S. adults are registered organ donors.

Simply registering with your state is only part of the solution. Here's why: First, the opportunity to be eligible to donate is rare. In 2007, there were almost 2.5 million deaths in the U.S. Studies have shown that about 18,000 of those deaths had the potential to result in an organ donation. Several factors, including health, age, and manner of death, combine to make donation a rare opportunity.

Second, the biggest obstacle to transplantation is family refusal. Only 8,143 people became deceased organ donors in the U.S. in 2012. The dropoff between the number of potential donors and that of actual donors is largely due to family refusal. Donation relies on cooperation. If your relatives don't know your wishes, it can be shocking to hear about it in a tragedy.

Families often refuse to permit donation even when they know the decedent chose it. In most states, even if you are donor designated, donation will not occur if your family refuses to honor that wish. If you want to be a donor, tell loved ones now.

When surveyed, 90 percent of Americans consistently support organ donation. People from all over wanted to help Sarah. Some offered their own lung, and others registered with their state to become donors.

But more is needed. To ensure that people like Sarah can get an organ, register to donate and spread the word.