KPier comments on The True Rejection Challenge - Less Wrong

43 Post author: Alicorn 27 June 2011 07:18AM

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Comment author: KPier 27 June 2011 10:13:56PM 0 points [-]

I think you're probably saving less than 1 life on average by being a donor.

U.S. websites tend toward overblown claims (100 lives saved per donor...) that have made it nearly impossible for me to figure this out. It appears there are 15,000 donors per year here, and around 28,000 lives saved, implying it's more than 1 life per donor (but not 5 or 10, as I had assumed).

I am currently signed up to be a donor, and I'm not really trying to wiggle out so much as figure out which option is better.

Comment author: handoflixue 27 June 2011 10:26:47PM 2 points [-]

nods I tried looking at U.S. websites and found a pretty consistent "up to 8 lives saved" and anywhere from 40-100 that benefit from tissue donation. The big missing factor in my research was how often an organ donor actually ends up donating. Everything I read hinted at less than 50%, but I never found a firm figure.

Google needs a "-Propaganda" or "+Science" tag :)