Apple To Encourage Organ Donation With Health App (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Apple announced today that its updated Health app, which will be available as part of iOS 10, will allow people to sign-up to be organ donors. The app will use its Medical ID feature, which has been used in the past to keep track of medical and health information, to include the ability to register as a donor of organs, eyes and tissues. The registrations will be forwarded to the National Donate Life Registry, an organization managed by Donate Life of America. All you need to do is tap the registration button in the Health app to volunteer as an organ donor. That adds your status as a donor to an "emergency information" screen that can appear even when the phone is locked. Tapping another button brings up information on organ donation. The demand for organs greatly exceeds the supply, as more than 120,000 Americans are currently waiting for a transplant -- every 10 minutes a new person is added to that waiting list, according to Apple. The feature is currently available for developers, but will be rolling out to the public in the public beta soon.

Comments

Nothing new

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

I'm not sure why this is news, here. Organ donation has been part of the Apple Store for years now. Wake me when they ask for more than just arms and legs!

Re:Nothing new

[tripleevenfall]

Apple will now sell your kidney directly to a donor, at a 30% markup.

Re:Nothing new

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

I'm not gonna name names here, but someone has already donated his humerus.

Well...

[mridoni]

... sorry, Steve, five years too late.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

He received a liver transplant (possibly jumped the queue to get to it by buying a house, who knows).

He died when he did because of three things:

1) he had pancreatic cancer. It's so hard to detect that a donor pancreas -- were that to be possible -- would be irrelevant, because it has often spread or become very serious; even with the least worst form of pancreatic cancer, the secondary impact on your health is dramatic even if it doesn't spread. This makes any subsequent treatment take a heavier toll.

2) he delayed cancer treatment (let's be kind to him and not criticise why, but he did), worsening his outcome, even though he was lucky enough to have that least-worst, treatable form of pancreatic cancer.

3) part of the process of his cancer treatment was a Whipple procedure (a modified one I think). Life expectancy after Whipple is on average about five years; it's a seriously dramatic procedure that comes with many, many major side-effects, not least possible liver cancer developed independent of the original cancer.

Even if he hadn't delayed his treatment, the Whipple procedure might have given him only a few years. Another organ donation at that point would have been unlikely.

Shitty bad luck and a bad but forgiveable personal judgement call. My mother died of the least treatable form of pancreatic cancer, after putting up quite a fight. It's a fucking terrifying disease. Don't make crappy jokes, donate to pancreatic cancer research.

captcha: miseries. Too fucking right.

Re:Organ Donation

[gurps_npc]

This kind of thought demonstrates ignorance. it's based on the false belief that somehow, the organ donors get WORSE treatment than dead people.

The truth is that if you can't respond but could recover, and are not a an organ donor, they simply pull the plug and let you die. Then they bury the organs you worked so hard to prevent
other people from getting.

It takes more than simply not responding to get you marked as dead.

The number of people that a) can't respond, yet b) can still live if they pull the plug are remarkably small.

If you are an organ donor, then they take extra steps to make sure you are really dead.

So being an organ donor makes it LESS likely that you will be killed (by turning off the machines), rather than more.

use the opt out system

[liquid_schwartz]

I wish that organ donating was an opt out system instead of an opt in system. It's not like anyone will miss their organs anyway.

Re:Organ Donation

[thoromyr]

"If you are an organ donor, then they take extra steps to make sure you are really dead."

        Nurse: Here's one.
        Organ Collector: Nine pence.
        Organ Donor: I'm not dead.
        Organ Collector: What?
        Nurse: Nothing. [hands the collector his money] There's your nine pence.
        Organ Donor: I'm not dead!
        Organ Collector: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
        Nurse: Yes he is.
        Organ Donor: I'm not.
        Organ Collector: He isn't.
        Nurse: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
        Organ Donor: I'm getting better.
        Nurse: No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.
        Organ Collector: Well, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations.
        Organ Donor: I don't want to go on the cart.
        Nurse:' Oh, don't be such a baby.
        Organ Collector: I can't take him.
        Organ Donor: I feel fine.
        Nurse: Oh, do me a favor.
        Organ Collector: I can't.
        Nurse: Well, can you hang around for a couple of minutes? He won't be long.
        Organ Collector: I promised I'd be at the Robinsons'. They've lost nine today.
        Nurse: Well, when's your next round?
        Organ Collector: Thursday.
        Organ Donor: I think I'll go for a walk.
        Nurse: You're not fooling anyone, you know. Isn't there anything you could do?
        Organ Donor: I feel happy. I feel happy.
        [The collector paces for an idea, then whacks the body with his club, solving the problem]
        Nurse: Ah, thank you very much.
        Organ Collector: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
        Nurse: Right.

Re:Organ Donation

[R3d M3rcury]

I was thinking more about this one.