Article

Organ donation and cancer survivors

With Facebook now adding an "organ donation" to its timeline feature, Chemobabe, a breast cancer survivor and blogger, brought up an interesting point on her Facebook page: FB plans to add "organ donor" status to the timeline. Cancer survivors aren't allowed to donate organs. Will we look like selfish a-holes? Does the good of drumming up donors outweigh our potential stigmatization? (You can read and post comments here.)The comments are across the board, including those who didn't realize that survivors have limited ability to donate organs and blood, which is a great topic all to itself. The Accidental Amazon touched on organ donation in a recent blog "Blood and Organ Donation After Cancer." Personally, I can't be a bone marrow donor, and it upsets me. I know the need is out there, and there is nothing I can personally do except spread the word on how important it is. But to go back to Chemobabe's point, I think this may be a learning opportunity for both survivors and non-survivors about organ donation. And while cancer patients and survivors may not be able to include "organ donor" on their timeline, they can designate "overcame an illness," but that brings another whole set of questions, doesn't it?Would you designate the date you "overcame cancer" on Facebook?

Related Videos
Dr. Alan Tan is the GU Oncology Lead at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as an associate professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and GU Executive Officer with the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.
Bald Doctor.
Dr. David A. Braun, an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Medical Oncology, and a Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman Yale Scholar, at the Yale School of Medicine, as well as a member of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at Yale Cancer Center, in New Haven, Connecticut
1 expert is featured in this series.
Dr. Anna Arthur is the Director of the Medical Nutrition Science Program, as well as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Dr. Ritu Salani, the Director of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), UCLA Health, and a board-certified gynecologic oncologist.
Image of Dr. Scott Kopetz
Image of Dr. Susumu Hijoka
1 expert is featured in this series.
Image of Dr. Braun.