Getting People Involved

April - Donate Life Month

In 2003, President George W. Bush designated April as National Donate Life Month to increase national focus on the critical need for organ, tissue, marrow and blood donors.

With an estimated 60 million Americans who have registered to be organ and tissue donors, national efforts aim to increase that number to 100 million by April 2008.

Each year more than 300,000 Americans who are given the gift of life each year through donation. However, despite these statistics, one of the nation’s most pressing public health issues is the widening gap between the supply and demand for organ and tissue transplants.

Close to 100,000 Americans currently await a lifesaving organ transplant with 18 people dying each day due to the shortage of donated organs.

Organs that can be donated include the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, pancreas and small intestine. Tissues that can be donated include bones, tendons, ligaments, corneas, heart valves and skin.

Just one organ and tissue donor can save the lives of eight people and enhance the lives of up to 100.

More than 95,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant.

Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant.

More than half the people on the waiting list for a donated organ are racial or ethnic minorities. Chances of getting a transplant increase if donor and recipient share the same racial/ethnic background.