THE FACTS
• Organ and tissue donation is a community service, which saves lives, improves quality of life and has cost benefits for society.
• Australia's transplant success rates are amongst the best but one of the lowest organ donation rates in the developed world
• Without organ donation there can be no transplantation
• One organ and tissue donor can save the lives of up to 10 people and significantly improve the lives of dozens more.
THE STATISTICS
• Around 1600 people are on Australian organ transplant waiting lists. On average, people on the transplant list can wait between 6 months and 4 years.
• In Australia, each person has a 10 times greater chance of requiring an organ transplant than of becoming an organ donor.
• Australia's family consent rate is low, with less than 60% of families giving consent for organ and tissue donation to proceed.
• In Australia the family will always be asked to confirm the donation wishes of the deceased before donation for transplantation can proceed. Yet 43% of Australians do not know or are not sure of the donation wishes of their loved ones
• The majority of Australians (93%) that are aware of their family members' wishes agree and support these wishes
• 90% of the Australian population support organ/tissue donation in principle, however less than half have registered a willingness to donate on the National Organ Donor registry.
• In 2011, 337organ donors gave 1001 Australians a new chance in life. The number of organ donors and transplant recipients in 2011 was the highest since national records began.