Today I attended an event “Decision to Donate” organized by Massimo Backus, a first year student in my school. The event started with screening a film Massimo directed: Decision to Donate (www.decisiontodonate.com), a story about his father’s decision to donate his kidney to his friend.
The film was short but very touching and inspiring. Although I probably won’t know exactly what organ donors and receivers go through, the film taught me that to donate an organ is more than to give someone a life.
At the end of the event, we were asked to fill out (if we wanted to) a donor sign-up form (www.donatelifecalifornia.org). Attached to the form was a very short survey on organ donation. The first question – if I remember it correctly – was something like ‘Did you fill out the organ donor registration form today? If yes why have you not signed up in the past? If no, why?’
My answer to the second part of the question was… I didn’t register before because it never occurred to me.
It was kind of embarrassing. Especially because I often say I don’t get attached to things – which btw is actually true – and like to give away things I don’t need to other people if they want. Plus, I love sharing/donating my resources – well, for now it’s mostly time because that’s what i have ;) – to help others and make them happy (!). And yet it never came across my mind that I have other things to give.
As I was searching online to learn more about organ donation, I was surprised to find that minorities should be particularly concerned about organ donation, because “some diseases of the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, and liver are found more frequently in racial and ethnic minority populations than in the general population” (http://bit.ly/1hUkVC).
So…. I made the decision today… to donate. Hopefully I can give a life to someone!