Everyone can be an organ donor

"It turns out that most people who've had cancer can donate both blood and organs," writes Bob Riter of the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes in the Ithaca Journal:

I called the United Network for Organ Sharing, the national organization that coordinates organ donations, and learned that they encourage everyone, even sick people, to check that they are organ donors. Upon death, they'll do a variety of tests to be sure the organs are usable. Cancer does not necessarily prevent a person's organs from being used to help someone else. It's the transplant team's job to sort out what they can use and what they can't.

Nobody should think they're too sick, or too old, to donate their organs when they die. If you needed an organ, you'd rather live with an imperfect organ than die waiting for a perfect one.

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