By this time tomorrow, 12 people in America who are alive right now will be dead.
Not because they were in a car wreck,
Not because they were gunned down,
Not because their time had come,
not even because they weren't in the hospital,
but simply because they couldn't be given a life-saving transplant in time.
12 people will die because the organ transplant they need will not be possible.
Money's not the issue here.
Nor is scarcity.
There are lots of organs out there....
Indeed there are literally millions of organs that could be made available to these transplant candidates.... but they have to come from donors.... and donors have to volunteer.... and the families of the donors have to agree with the donors' choice.
Last year in the United States, there over 19,000 organ transplants performed. These organ transplants were made from 9845 donors, since many donors are able to donate multiple organs.
English: Chart of Ontario Transplant By Organ
English: Chart of waiting lists for organ transpla...
English: Donna Mansell, Double heart transplant re...Now, 19,000 transplants may seem like a lot, until you learn that there are currently over 83000 patients on the National Transplant Registry, awaiting transplants.