New Facebook Organ Donor App May Lead to Illegal Organ Trafficking

Since Facebook released its new organ donation app, people have been raving about its potential benefits. Easing the registration process to donate organs and raising awareness of organ donations by sharing your registration status has already increased organ donation registration. In California alone, the average daily registration increased from 70 to 1,200. Mark Zuckerberg’s dream to reduce the organ supply shortage may have come true. 

But, this app could have negative consequences. The app to publicize a person’s organ donation registration status could increase illegal organ donations, organ brokering, and organ trafficking – all of which are transnational crimes.

The low supply of organ donations coupled with the high demand for transplants makes people desperate for organs when the need arises. In the U.S. alone, 18 people die a day from not receiving organ transplants. With statistics like this in mind, many people would go to extreme lengths to obtain necessary organs.  

The new possibility of knowing if your friend is a donor will lead people to offer material benefits for organs. Organ recipients desperate for an organ can offer friends benefits in exchange, for example, kidneys. The Facebook organ donation app may propel two people to commit a crime.