Facebook already wants your personal information. Now they want your organs too! Well, kind of. The social networking site has added a feature on its new “timeline” profile configuration that makes it easy for users to share their organ donor status, and the site links to users’ local authorities where they can register officially.
Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg was inspired by his girlfriend, who’s currently attending medical school, and Steve Jobs’s public battle with pancreatic cancer.
Johns Hopkins surgeon Andrew M. Cameron helped the social networking giant develop the initiative and is excited about the greater awareness and participation that Facebook can facilitate. More than 2,000 Marylanders are awaiting organs, a number that is on the rise, even as the number of donors stays stagnant. Currently, in Maryland, 50 percent of licensed drivers have registered as organ donors.
So if you participate in Facebook’s organ donation initiative, you’ll be doing more than just helping a billionaire impress his girlfriend; you could potentially save a life.
