The real hoax of organ donation

Dialysis is not cheap. Dialysis for renal patients costs about $82,000 a year and considering that most patients wait three to five years for a transplant, that means a cost of $300,000 for each patient. There are about 8,500 patients on dialysis according to Kidney Health Australia and that equates to $697 million a year. That figure is increasing rapidly.

Consider this final point: the bottom line is that organs that don’t get transplanted are burnt or buried. We have to be real here - they are completely wasted. The failure of someone’s organs to go where they are needed is a sad eulogy.

We need a fundamental shift in our approach to organ donation, a shift from the fantasy world of ticking boxes on our licences and proud boasts that we are prepared to be organ donors to a more pragmatic, clinical approach where organ donation is the norm and anything else is extraordinary.

And think of what you are achieving: you are helping the general population by saving money and releasing the burden on our hospitals; the family and friends of the recipient; yourself, knowing that your decision of organ donation has helped so much; and of course the recipient themselves, who is living a death sentence … and you just saved their life.