World Organ Donation Day: History and significance

World Organ Donation Day is observed every year on August 13 across the globe. The purpose of observing this day is to spread awareness about the importance of organ donation and to encourage people to do the same. Organ failure was one of the major reasons that led to a large number of deaths during the pandemic. In fact, people used to lose their lives because of the unavailability of organs before the pandemic as well. Therefore, organ donation is a noble act that needs to be promoted.

Many countries also observe organ donation day as per their regional calendars to promote organ donation. In India, National Organ Donation Day is observed on November 27 from 2010.

Donating organs means you are giving someone a new lease of life. The first-ever successful living donor organ transplant was carried out in 1954 in the United States when Ronald Lee Herrick donated a kidney to his identical twin brother, Richard Lee Herrick. Doctor Joseph Murray won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1990 for successfully carrying out this kidney transplant.