April Is National Donate Life Month

Did you know that 1 organ donor can save up to 8 lives? With more than 100,000 people in the United States waiting for an organ transplant—including over 2,000 children—every registered donor can make a difference in someone’s life.¹

Donate Life America established National Donate Life Month (NDLM) in 2003 to celebrate organ donors and the lives they save through organ transplantation and to raise awareness of the importance of registering to become an organ, eye, and tissue donor.

The need for more organ donors and organ transplantation is exacerbated by existing health inequities. For the past 40 years,² the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) has been leading the charge to establish an accountable organ transplant system to broaden organ donation across the United States. Part of its mission is to provide equitable access in transplants, with the understanding that various factors can affect a person receiving a transplant (e.g., age, race or ethnicity, insurance type, geography). For example, according to a 2016 study, Black people are less likely to be rated as transplantation candidates, referred for transplant evaluation, placed on the transplant waiting list, and receive a kidney transplant, compared to White recipients.^3,4

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In light of these disparities, the OPTN removed unnecessary screening metrics to evaluate kidney function that disproportionately delay receipt of kidney transplants among Black people. It also required all kidney transplant programs to implement a race-neutral calculation to estimate kidney function and to adjust waitlist time for those affected by the previous use of the unfair race-based calculation.^5,6 The OPTN continues to closely monitor equity in access to transplants by examining the impact of health policies on candidates’ likelihood of receiving a transplant.

An overwhelming majority of Americans support organ donation (90%), but only 50% have registered as a donor.⁷ The types of organs and tissues that can successfully be donated continues to expand with advances in medicine. Organs include heart, lung, kidney, liver, intestines, and pancreas; tissue may include eyes/corneas, heart valves, bones and associated tissues, skin, veins and arteries, nerves, and birth tissue.⁸ A single tissue donor can help more than 75 people.⁹

Learn more about registering an as organ, eye and tissue donor, or simply share information about NDLM and organ donation with your friends, family, and community. Here are a few simple ways you can get involved and spread the word about NDLM this April—from wearing blue and green to sharing hope-inspiring messages online and with your community:

• Donate Life Living Donor Day (April 3)
• Blue & Green Spirit Week (April 6–12)
• National Donate Life Blue & Green Day (April 12)
• National Pediatric Transplant Week (April 21–27)

As we commemorate NDLM, we celebrate the thousands of donors who bring new life to recipients and their families and the millions of patients whose lives were changed through organ transplantation. We also acknowledge the need for policy reform to ensure equitable access to organ transplantation across the country.