I Spent a Day Asking People of Color to Part with their Organs

Last weekend I spent a day standing in a drug store asking people to eventually part with their organs.

This wasn’t my first rodeo. As a certified volunteer for an Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) I have been trained on the right way to have this conversation. (Hint: The sentence above is not it.)

I live in a state that has opt-in organ donation. What this means is that it is assumed a resident does not want to be an organ donor unless they express a preference to do so:

• On the Internet via the national donor registry

• On their phones via a number of apps, including iPhone’s health app

• When they get/renew their driver’s license

Most of these steps take under 1 minute to complete. Nevertheless, many people don’t complete them.

Donate Life releases donor registration stats in its annual report. You can check it out here.

In my home state of NJ, 40% of the adults have added themselves to a donor registry. The good thing is, this number continues to grow, thanks to groups like NJ Sharing Network. But, where the number remains small — in some cases well below that 40% — is in cities and towns with the greatest number of people on the transplant waiting list. These also happen to be the cities and towns with the most racially and ethnically diverse populations of people in the state.

60% of the people on the national organ transplant waiting list are people of color. That number goes up to 66% in New Jersey. However, people of color are not equally represented in the national donor registry.

That disparity between need and donors is what national initiatives, like Donate Life’s ECHO, and regional initiatives, such as NJ Sharing Networks’s #DonationNeedsDiversity, are aiming to rectify.

This is why I spent a Saturday, in one of these towns, standing with two other volunteers, in the front entrance of a Walgreens, encouraging people to make the choice today to save lives in the future.

Candidly, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

As a volunteer, your role is to educate. Even if someone doesn’t register today, you plant a seed. That seed might grow into a conversation they have later with their family member, co-worker, or friend about donation. That’s the hope.

As a volunteer, you’re also trained on how to handle common questions and objections.

It is precisely those questions and objections that had me getting up at 4 a.m. the day of the event to study.

I figured that if people in this town didn’t register to become donors, there must be compelling reasons why. To do my job well, I would need to address their concerns. I assumed most of the questions would fall into the categories of Religion, Race, and Care.

• Religion: Sometimes people are reluctant to donate out of concern it does not align with their religious beliefs and practices. The good thing is, organ donation enjoys very broad support. For the most part, donation is viewed as either an expression of love and selflessness or as an individual decision. The Finger Lakes Recovery Network has a really great resource page here.

• Race: Sometimes people believe race factors into the donation/transplant process. This is just not true. Matches are based on a number factors including: blood type, body size, and how sick the recipient is at time of transplant. Race, income, and gender are never considered.

• Care: Sometimes people think that — if their doctor finds out they are listed on the donor registry — that the doctor may stop treatment. A doctor’s obligation is to you, the patient. The doctor’s goal is to save your life. If that is not possible, only then could an OPO — that is entirely separate from your doctor and medical team — be brought in.

I wanted to make sure I knew my facts inside and out, because I wanted to listen carefully, understand any concerns they may have, and address them. Ultimately I wanted this person to understand why organ donation matters and feel really good about registering.

But, the curious thing is I wasn’t called upon to address any of these concerns — not a single one.

Virtually all of the people I encountered knew about organ donation already and thought it was a great thing to do. They just didn’t feel like standing in line at motor vehicles. (Let’s be honest: Who does, really?)

When I explained that, to become an organ donor, all they need do is register via web or via an app on their phones, the overwhelming response was: “Sure, I’ll do that right now. Is this lip balm free?” (We give out free lip balm to anyone who wants one. And yes, it is uncommonly good lip balm.)

So I spent the day handing out free cosmetics and helping good people do something even gooder.

All they needed was someone to tell them being a hero only takes a phone and under 60 seconds.