Organ Donation
Fewer than 12 percent of all organ donations come
from African Americans.
Some of those African Americans on waiting lists
may continue on dialysis or even die because no
'matches' can be found for their kidneys; those
'matches' are most likely to be found with
African-American donors.
- Nationally, about 55,000 persons are on
transplant waiting lists and about 4,000 of
these persons die each year while awaiting a
transplant. That means every day about 55
Americans will receive a needed transplant but
10 will die because of organ unavailability.
- Nationally, blacks constitute 12.5 percent
of the U.S. population, yet comprise more than
34 percent of patients on the kidney transplant
waiting list. Since the late 1980s, donor
education campaigns in the African-American
community have been limited to increasing
cadaver donations. In 1991, the Office of the
Inspector General reported that black transplant
candidates waited almost twice as long as white
candidates for kidney transplants.