Undocumented Immigrants in U.S. Donate More Organs Than They Receive

Undocumented immigrants voluntarily donate more organs than they receive at U.S. transplant centers, as do other non-American citizens who are in the United States legally, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

Immigrants who are in the U.S. without proper papers account for about 2 percent of all cadaver organs donated in the United States and receive just over one percent of all U.S. organ transplants, according to UNOS.

"As a percentage, every year, U.S. citizens receive more organs than they donate," said UNOS spokesperson Anne Paschke.

Of the 6,081 deceased organ donors in the United States in 2001, 297 were not U.S. citizens, including 124 undocumented immigrants, UNOS reported. These undocumented immigrants would have donated a total of about 450 organs for transplantation to patients on the UNOS waiting list.

In that same year, the most recent for which data is available, 258 undocumented immigrants were among the 22,000 patients receiving organ transplants at U.S. transplant centers.

During this same period, non-U.S. citizens who died while in the country legally would have donated a total of about 620 organs for transplantation, while 545 other non-U.S. citizens here legally received organ transplants, according to UNOS.

The total of 803 non-U.S. citizens who received organ transplants at U.S. centers in 2001 represent approximately 3.3 percent of all patients receiving transplants in the United States -- well under the maximum of 5 percent that UNOS allows each individual hospital.

Interest in transplant and organ donation data for non-U.S. citizens -- and particularly undocumented immigrants -- was stimulated by the sad and tragic death of Jesica Santillan, the 17-year-old Mexican girl who underwent two heart-lung transplants at Duke University Medical Center.

Her death, which generated headlines after the first heart-lung transplant was botched, also angered some when it was revealed that Santillan's family had paid a smuggler to bring them across the Mexican border.

Some questioned whether an undocumented immigrant should receive scaarce organs when more than 80,000 U.S. citizens are now on waiting lists for organs.

But the UNOS data, first obtained by the El Paso Times, makes it clear that U.S. citizens are a net beneficiary of inclusion of undocumented immigrants and non-U.S. citizens in the organ donation and transplant system.

Other Sources: UNOS, El Paso Times