More Resources on Other Ways to Give Life

Our Directory section on Other Ways to Give Life affirms the capacity of every human being to practice generativity, or a mature, compassionate giving to others and to the future, regardless of whether s/he is a parent or not. We have just expanded and (hopefully) improved it, though it is difficult for us as ersons who happen to be parents to assess whether we are adequately sensitive here to childless/childfree persons. If we are not, please tell us how and make specific recommendations so that we can improve.

Organ & Tissue Donation: How You Can Help (Part Three)

Part One explains the global need for organ/tissue donors.

Part Two gives a list of organ/tissue donor registries by country as well as sites on living donation.

Part Three is something I hadn't anticipated, though it's not entirely a surprise.

This week, this world lost the great African American poet, performer, and activist Sekou Sundiata. at the age of 58. He died from heart failure after being on dialysis about a year.

In January 1999, when his kidneys initially failed, a transplant saved his life. Because of another person's generosity, he was here on this planet another eight years, right where he needed to be.

Don't know yet whether he was medically a feasible candidate for a second transplant, which in some cases becomes possible and necessary. But if he was: he wasn't the first person, especially person of color, to die for lack of a matching organ/tissue.

Whatever the case may be: may our brother rest in peace, and may his life and voice continue to move us.

Organ and Tissue Donation: How You Can Help (Part Two)

Part One of this message explains the global need for organ & tissue donation, and today's BlogCatalog "blogathon" on this matter of life and death for millions and their loved ones.

Unfortunately there is no one single website where any global citizen from anywhere can go sign up as an organ and/or tissue donor...let alone and ensure that his or her gifts will go to the people who need them the most.

Now there's an idea...but for now, I will list here the online national organ and tissue registries for every country I could find, and a couple of other relevant sites...Sorry I don't have more, either because I didn't find one yet, or because, alas, they don't exist (and need to!)

Please note the plea to people from all communities of color in the United States!

Thank you for caring!

How Do I Become A Living Donor?
Living Bank
Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide

Armenia
Australia
Canada
Germany
Great Britain
India
Israel
Malaysia
Norway
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Taiwan & Beyond (Tzu Chi Foundation)
United States (OrganDonor.gov). To book a blood donation appointment in the US, please go to givelife.org . People of color in particular suffer and die needlessly because not enough people of color donate blood, other tissues, and organs. To learn more, please visit Help Us Save More Lives on the blood shortage, from MinorityNurse.com.




Umbilical Cord Blood Donation: Registries & Resources

Eurocord International Registry on Cord Blood Transplantation: FAQs
Hema-Quebec
National Marrow Donor Program: How to Donate Cord Blood (has online cord blood registry that works with banks across the US and in Australia, France, Germany, Mexio, Spain, and Switzerland)
NHS (National Health Service) Cord Blood Bank (serves England and Wales)

Organ & Tissue Donation: How You Can Help (Part One)

Today BlogCatalog is having an organ donation awareness "blogathon."

And certainly that fits well with this blog's pro-every-life, pro-nonviolent choice (nonsectarian, interfaith, secular) mission here. Every year, millions of human beings, especially but not entirely in the Two-Thirds World, die preventable deaths for the sheer lack of organ and tissue donations--not because current medical knowledge can't save them. And when people die, there goes their right to nonviolent choice, away with their right to life. Even when and if they do survive with their life-threatening conditions...these conditions can keep them from making the sexual and reproductive choices they would really prefer to make.

For me, this issue gets pretty personal. Not only do I know people who live because of donations, and others who have died for lack of a match in time...Although I am doing relatively OK at this moment, I have lived a long time with serious, potentially degenerative medical problems that someday may threaten my life. I am at much heightened risks of kidney failure and leukemia, two otherwise fatal problems that can be successfully treated through kidney transplantation on the one hand, and bone marrow transplantation on the other.

Someday, dear readers (if any), one of you all may save my life! And even if you don't save mine, precisely, you might save the life of somebody else who also needs, wants, and deserves to live as full and as long a time as possible...but who is right now embroiled in the crisis that for me is still a hypothetical worst-case scenario.


Today almost every world religion praises organ and tissue donations as expressions of great love for one's fellow human beings. And if you're atheist or agnostic, well, I'm sure your ethics include love for your fellow human beings...and what more certain & tangible afterlife is there than the one(s) you could give through organ and tissue donation?

A special note to people of color: In the US, Great Britain, and some other countries, people of color are seriously underrepresented in the pool of available organ and tissue donors. On top of helping your fellow human beings, you can help to make justice and new life for your racial/ethnic community.

In my next post, I will list websites of places where people can go online and register as organ and tissue donors.