The following research paper explores the effects of race on organ donation. Specifically the research objective is to determine if there is a relationship between organ donor consent rates and the matching of race requestors to race of potential donor families. Pearson's correlation was used to demonstrate significant relationships. It was expected that there would be a significant relationship between the variables, however the study findings did not support the study hypothesis that there is a significant correlation between race of requestors and potential organ donors and organ donor consent outcomes.
Evans, Orians, and Ascher (1992) pointed out that over 60,000 patients who die annually or are maintained with therapy, need an organ transplant; 23,000 patients continue to wait for an organ transplant and donor supply is not adequate. These findings are from a geographic database compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics. At the time of this report there were between 6900 and 10700 potential donors available annually, yet only 37%-59& of donations were procured. Thus there are more organ donors available that are consenting to donate organs.
Kahn (2003) noted further that the supply of donor organs for transplant continues to remain inadequate and as a result there are many programs to increase these donations. Approaches include a marketing approach, attempts to change social culture, and the outright sale of organs. Each of these programs have presented problems and resulted in exploitation of potential donors. On example of this exploitation is found in the proposal that prisoners donate an organ for a reduced sentence, which is a form of coercion. A more positive solution was offered by the Best Practices Final Report on The Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative, released in 2003, is designed to increase existing knowledge regarding how to increase organ donation rates, with goals of increas...