Nashville, TN January 24 2004--LifeSharers, a non-profit network of organ donors that offers members preferred access to the organs of fellow members, has attracted its 2,000th member. Membership in LifeSharers has doubled in the last six months.

LifeSharers was launched twenty months ago to help alleviate the shortage of human organs and tissue needed for transplant operations. That shortage kills over 6,000 Americans every year, and gets larger every day. More than half the people who need an organ transplant in America die before they get one.

“Everybody knows that donating your organs when you die is the right thing to do,” says David J. Undis, the organization’s Executive Director. “But for one reason or another, most Americans haven’t gotten around to signing a donor card and talking to their family about it. We give people a good reason to take those steps – a better chance to live if you ever need an organ in the future.”

LifeSharers members agree to donate their organs and tissue when they die. They direct their donation first to other members of the LifeSharers network (unless no member is a suitable match). By giving fellow members first access to their organs, LifeSharers members reward organ donors and create an incentive for others to become donors. They also help correct an inequity in the organ allocation system, which gives most organs to people who haven’t agreed to donate their own organs.

Mr. Undis adds, “Giving organs first to organ donors is the fair thing to do. It also increases the number of donors, and that saves lives. More and more people understand that. It took us 14 months to attract our first thousand members. It took us less than half that time to attract the next thousand. By continuing to grow we will eventually save thousands of lives every year.”

There has been a shortage of organs ever since the first transplant operations, and the shortage is getting worse every year. According to statistics compiled by the United Network for Organ Sharing, over 83,500 Americans are now on a waiting list for an organ transplant, and another name gets added to the list about every 14 minutes. Somebody on the waiting list dies about every 90 minutes.

LifeSharers membership is free and open to all at http://www.lifesharers.com. LifeSharers does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical handicap, health status, marital status, or economic status.

ABOUT LIFESHARERS
LifeSharers is a 501(c)(3) non-profit network of organ donors. Membership in LifeSharers is free and open to all. Since its launch on May 22, 2002, LifeSharers has attracted 2,002 members in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The LifeSharers web site is at http://www.lifesharers.com.


This article courtesy of http://www.x-organ.com.

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