The Donor Register allows authorised medical personnel to verify a person's decision about donating their organs and tissue for transplantation. Registrations are arranged by age group, state and gender. Total registrations as at 30 April 2023: 7,593,371.
Despite the impact of COVID-19 on the donation and transplantation sector, around 4,000 Australians benefitted from the extraordinary gift of life and sight thanks to 1,644 deceased organ, eye and tissue donors and their families in 2020.
The size of the problem
However, Australia's donation and transplantation rates dropped in 2020 due to the emergence of COVID-19. In 2020, there were 1,270 organ transplant recipients from 463 deceased organ donors. Right now, more than 1,600 people are waiting for a life-saving transplant.
The Australian Government is committed to increasing Australia's organ and tissue transplantation rates. We are looking at ways to improve the organ donation, retrieval and transplantation system to help save and improve the lives of more Australians.
According to ShareLife, in 2017 Australia was ranked 16th in the world for organ donation rates, at 20.8 donors per million of population (DPMP). If Australia matched the top-ranked nation, Spain, with a DPMP of 47, an additional 1700 Australians could receive a transplant each year.
Spain had the highest donor rate in the world, 46.9 per million people in the population, in 2017.
Who can donate organs and tissue? Almost everyone can donate organs and tissue. While age and medical history will be considered, don't assume you are too young, old or unhealthy to become a donor. You need to be aged 18 years or over to legally record your consent on the Australian Organ Donor Register.
The Amish are reluctant however to donate their organs if transplant outcomes are uncertain. The offering of life to and for others reflects the Christian principle of interdependence within the human community.
The most common reasons cited for not wanting to donate organs were mistrust (of doctors, hospitals, and the organ allocation system), a belief in a black market for organs in the United States, and deservingness issues (that one's organs would go to someone who brought on his or her own illness, or who could be a "bad ...
For around 1,800 Australians on the waitlist for an organ transplant, it can be a matter of life and death. A further 14,000 people are on dialysis, some who may benefit from a kidney transplant. Registering and telling your family that you want to be an organ and tissue donor is easy.
In 2015, kidneys were the organ most frequently transplanted from deceased donors (718), followed by lungs (375) (AOTDTA 2016). In 2014, there were 267 living donor kidney transplants (ANZDATA 2016). Note: One intestinal transplant is not included.
An average of nearly 20 of them dies each day while waiting. The kidney is the most commonly transplanted organ.
In Australia, families are asked to consent to organ and tissue donation, even if a person has registered their decision to be a donor. When you die your senior available next of kin may be asked if they consent to donate your organs and tissues for transplantation.
Is it common for a registered donor to actually be able to donate their organs? Although almost 170 million people are registered to be donors, only three in 1,000 people die in a way that allows for deceased organ donation.
Historically, and also in the present day, many Muslims believe that organ donation is haram, prohibited. This is because the human body is considered sacred and the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, said that the body remains sacred even after death and should not be harmed.
Organ donation and transplantation is permissible within the Islamic Faith. Recently, the Fiqh Council of North America issued a FATAAWAH or FATWA addressing organ donation and transplantation, where it considered organ donation and transplantation to be Islamically permissible in principle.
Gypsies – Gypsies are, on the whole, against donation. Although they have no formal resolution, their opposition is associated with their belief about the afterlife. Gypsies believe that for one year after a person dies, the soul retraces its steps.
For example, thoracic organs, like the heart and lungs, can only remain viable for transplant after being outside the body for four to six hours, while the liver can function for up to 12 hours and kidneys for up to 36 hours.
Types of organ and tissue transplants
Organs that can be transplanted in Australia include the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, intestine and pancreas.
Myth: I'm not healthy enough to donate because of my lifestyle choices. Fact: If you smoke, drink or have an unhealthy diet you can still register to be a donor. You don't have to be in perfect health. There's every chance that some of your organs and tissues may be suitable for donation.
The brain is the only organ in the human body that cannot be transplanted.
Lung transplant patients have the lowest 5- and 10-year survival rates, according to UNOS. “The lungs are a very difficult organ to transplant because they're exposed to the environment constantly as we breathe,” explained Dr. Steves Ring, Professor of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. Dr.
TRANSPLANTED ORGANS CAN BE DONATED AGAIN
A new, emerging practice in transplantation allows for the successful transplantation of an organ in more than one recipient. This means a transplant recipient could be an organ donor.