10 Millionth Person Registers to be Organ Donor in United Kingdom

Eight years after Britain's National Health Service established a central Organ Donor Register for potential organ donors, the 10 millionth person signed up this week indicating willingness to donate their organs upon death.

"This is a momentous occasion," said Sue Sutherland, chief executive of UK Transplant. "Ten million people - that's 17 per cent of the UK population - have registered their wishes to leave a legacy of life. They have signed up to say they want their death to help someone else."

Sutherland noted that there are more than 5,600 men, women and children on the UK transplant waiting list -- a far smaller number as a percentage of total population than the 80,700 currently on the waiting list in the United States.

The organ donor register was created in 1994 after a family whose son died of a brain tumor realized there was no central database for potential donors.

"We know that many lives could be saved if only more people talked about organ donation with their families and registered their wishes on the NHS Organ Donor Register," Sutherland said.

Other sources: NHS