Facebook has launched its latest tool where users can share that they are an organ donor, in the hope that it will help save more lives on a daily basis. Facebook users have to go to their timelines, where under ‘Life Event’ they will see a health and wellness section and then you can click to become an organ donor and share your story about when, where or why you decided to become a donor.

More than 114,000 people in the United States are awaiting organ donations, 79 people daily receive a transplant while 18 die, according to Organdonor.gov. In the UK, National Service Health Service (NHS) pointed out that there are over 10,000 people on the waiting list for an organ, while an average of three people a day die waiting for a transplant.

The new Facebook feature is working in the United States, UK, and Australia but it is expected to expand in other parts of the world. The US previously averaged about 506 new registrations per day, but since Facebook introduced the tool on April 30 more than 24,000 people have registered to donate their organs, according to Donate Life America.

Facebook added the organ donation feature to raise awareness to the issue after CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, took a personal interest in it, partly because of his friendship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Jobs’s liver transplant extended his life several years.

The move will raise awareness about the critical shortage of organs for people in need of life-saving transplants. It may also create social pressure to inspire Facebook friends to consider registration.

This solidary initiative is seen by many skeptics like another way to obtain personal information concerning our health. Once we become an organ donor our privacy is stripped away, no matter how good Facebook´s intentions, sharing our data with the social network entails releasing information to an unknown companies without our consent. In an indirect way behind our altruistic behavior many big firms will make a killing exchanging information.

This donor program might bring about many successful and happy stories about saving lives, but in the end you are also an information donor, giving away your personal information to a company that can make profit off of it. Medical insurance companies will use our personal medical information to determine our eligibility for insurance coverage for their own protection, allowing health businesses to capitalize on insurance payments for the healthy, whereas others with bad medical history will be overcharged.

Another concern about organ donation is that medical information on Facebook is not protected by U.S. laws. According to the state´s Uniform Anatomical Gift Law, being an organ donor on Facebook is just as good being on the state´s organ donation registry.

Organ donation has never been “private” as it is openly displayed upon a public identification card. The choice of being an organ donor is personal and has to be respected. With the new Facebook feature, this choice becomes a public identity marker, something to be socially shared, commented upon, and potentially, conspicuously absent.

The advocacy group Donate Life American found that many people decline to became an organ donor for diverse reasons: citizens fear that they are not healthy enough or they are too old to donate their organs; others are concerned that doctors will not try their best to save them if they are known to be an organ donor; some people believe there is a black market where organs or tissues are sold; and some citizens question whether or not a person can recover from brain death.

Organ donation, as displayed through Facebook, is at once a deeply personal decision about death and the body, and a public display of generosity, fear, and/or general health. Whether you think that Facebook has made a strong move in a positive direction, or has once again taken sharing too far, the organ donation feature on Facebook embodies the categorical fusion that represents a connected era.

Image Courtesy of  withGod / Shutterstock.com

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Scotland, a nation known for its feats of strength, is gradually sliding in a self-created tomb of poor health. High alcohol consumption, obesity, lack of adequate exercise, and eating junk food is leading to atrocious levels of illness in Scotland. The chief medical officer of Scotland, Dr. Burns, has warned in his annual report that poor diet, obesity, physical inactivity, and high alcohol consumption is leading to increased health problems in Scotland.

He pointed to figures reported in the Scottish Health Survey which indicated that 27 percent of men and 18 percent of women exceeded the recommended weekly amount of alcohol consumption. Smoking among adults is decreasing, but 25 percent of adults still smoke cigarettes, and 63.3 percent of adults are either overweight or obese. Only 22 percent of adults met the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables a day, and only 39 percent of adults met the recommended levels of physical activity.

Despite a reported reduction in consumption of alcohol from 28 percent in 1995 to 22 percent in 2010, the level of those who exceed the daily amount of alcohol consumption has risen among men from 43 percent to 45 percent, and for women, it fell from 37 percent to 33 percent. He also noted that the data on alcohol consumption is conflicting, i.e comparing purchase data and consumption data.

However, alcohol purchase data indicates that consumption is on the increase. New hospital admissions due to alcohol-related conditions for people under 75 has increased by 18 percent in the last decade. Alcohol-related deaths for those aged 45-74 was also reported to be nine times more in deprived areas than in affluent areas.

On a positive note, the mortality rates due to Scotland’s big three killers: cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke for people under 75 have continued to decline. Premature death rates due to cancer, CHD, and stroke have been reduced by 22 percent, 60 percent, and 54 percent respectively .

Premature mortality rates due to all other cases for those under 75 have been reduced by 28 percent ( from 507 per 100,000 in 1995 to 365 per 100,000 in 2009). Increased survival rates from cancer have been influenced by effective treatment, early diagnosis, and more people have been cured of cancer. Five year survival from cancer over the last two decades rose from 26 percent to 44 percent for men and from 36 percent to 51 percent for women.

Less affluent areas were shown to display more of these risky behaviors. Mental health problems are also becoming worse in deprived areas and among the working class. The lower display of risky behavior among the affluent is largely due to available information from health promotion campaigns which has, for some reason, remained largely ignored in the other sections of the society. Dr. Burns warned, “Scotland continues to have a higher level of ill health than most of our immediate neighbors in Europe.”

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In another sign of strife at the heart of Britain’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has threatened to instruct his MPs and peers to vote against the Health and Social Care Bill unless it is substantially altered.

In its current form, the bill gives local doctors more control over the health budget and introduces greater competition into Britain’s nationalized healthcare system.  Critics, including the opposition Labour Party, argue that the bill could lead to the backdoor privatization of the National Health Service.  Doubts have also been raised regarding the ability of local doctors to make effective budgetary decisions.  Because of a torrent of opposition to the bill, the government is proceeding slowly and a date has yet to be set for the bill’s final consideration by the House of Commons.

Speaking on the BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, Clegg asserted that the government’s decision to slow down the bill’s progress was more than just a political stunt.  “This is not a cosmetic exercise. There will be substantial, significant changes to the legislation.  As far as Government legislation is concerned, no bill is better than a bad one, and I want to get this right. Protecting the NHS, rather than undermining it, is now my number one priority,” he said.

He went on to say that he could not ask Liberal Democrat peers and MPs to vote for the proposals “unless I personally am satisfied that what these changes do is an evolutionary change in the NHS and not a disruptive revolution.”

In the aftermath of last week’s failed Alternative Vote referendum and massive Liberal Democrat losses in the local government elections, Clegg has come under pressure to differentiate himself from his Conservative coalition partners.  By adopting a tough stance on the NHS reforms, he no doubt hopes to mollify the increasingly jittery members of his own party.

Clegg’s intervention puts the Conservatives in an awkward position.  If they cede too much ground to the Liberal Democrats, it will increase dissatisfaction among rank-and-file Tories, many of whom are just as hostile to the coalition as their Liberal Democrat counterparts.  At the same time, if the Liberal Democrats all vote against the bill, it would likely fail to pass and the coalition would be dealt a blow from which it would be difficult to recover.  The coming weeks will likely see a great deal of behind-the-scenes horsetrading as the coalition tries to thrash out a compromise that will satisfy both camps.  David Cameron and Nick Clegg will have their work cut out for them as they try to steer the coalition between Scylla and Charybdis.

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