We can and should make it easier for everyone to become an organ donor | Opinion
Organ donation is kindness; it is a quiet, generous act that can save up to eight lives and heal many more.
Every day in America, 13 people die waiting for an organ transplant. They are children, parents, neighbors, and friends – ordinary people in extraordinary need. And yet, there is something extraordinary we can all do to help: register our decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor.
Surveys consistently show that 90% of Americans support organ donation. But only slightly more than half of Americans are registered donors. The reasons are often simple: people forget, they’re not asked, they think they have to wait for their next DMV visit, or they just don’t know how to register.
The act itself is simple: one decision, one click, one profound act of generosity. And now, that opportunity is closer than ever – embedded directly in the digital spaces many of us already use to manage our health: patient portals.
Patient portals – where we all check our lab results, schedule appointments, and message our doctors – have quietly become a fixture of modern healthcare. Their potential goes beyond convenience. They are emerging as powerful tools for patients and the public good.
Donate Life America is working with global healthcare software company, Epic, to provide a trusted pathway to register your lifesaving decision through MyChart. MyChart serves as the patient portal for 180 million people in the United States. By adding organ donor registration directly into patient portals, Epic and its health system partners are making it easier for people to turn generosity into action.
Now, when patients log in to review a lab result or talk with their doctor, they might see a question: Would you like to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor? It’s an invitation to make a meaningful, lifesaving choice at a time when people are already thinking about their health, life, and values.
This matters. When a person has registered their donation decision, it brings comfort and clarity to grieving loved ones who don’t have to guess what they would have wanted. It's a gesture of compassion that echoes far beyond the individual.
Organ donation is kindness; it is a quiet, generous act that can save up to eight lives and heal many more. It transcends politics, religion, race, and age. It’s one of the most compassionate choices a person can make.
We often think of change as something large, sweeping, and difficult. But sometimes, change begins with something small. A login. A question. A decision to say yes, and one click.
If your health system gives you the opportunity to say yes to donation through your MyChart patient portal, take it. And if it doesn’t, encourage them to do so. This is an infrastructure of hope we can, and should, build together.
Because somewhere, someone is waiting. And you could be the reason they live.
David Fleming is the President and CEO, of Donate Life America (DLA) a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to educate, inspire and activate the public to say yes to registering their decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor. Learn more at DonateLife.net/MyChart.