Racial Disparities in Organ Donation

For the majority of organ insufficiencies, transplanting is the sole therapy to aid in this within healthcare (Yilmaz, 2011). Therefore, it is evident that organ donation is a crucial part of certain surgeries within the NHS. However, there is a global perennial disequilibrium between the need for organ transplantation, and organ donation (Jawoniyi, Gormley, McGleenan & Noble, 2017). This highlights the importance of organ donation as a whole, showing how an increased amount of organ donation can lead to saving people’s lives, but this is not the sole concern surrounding organ donation within the NHS.

Within organ donation, as well as the total amount of organ donations being outweighed by those required for transplants, there is also a large racial disparity within this. Whilst the proportion of people from Black, Asian, and other minority ethnic communities on the NHS Organ Donor Register is on the rise, these communities are still underrepresented (NHS, 2023). There are a multitude of barriers that people from a minority ethnic background face when it comes to organ donation, these factors include, but are not limited to decreased awareness of transplantation, religious or cultural distrust of the medical community, fear of medical abandonment, and fear of racism (Bratton, Chavin & Baliga, 2011). This shows the disparity that exists between people from different ethnic backgrounds and their responses to organ donation, however, why is it so important that there are changes in this area?

Black people are disproportionately more likely to suffer from end-stage kidney disease than their white counterparts, however, on average wait twice as long for a kidney transplant (Siminoff, Burant & Ibrahim, 2006). As previously mentioned, one of the reasons for this is the distrust in the equality of the donation system, with the problems that extend throughout the entirety of healthcare, this being the fears of different treatment due to race, being prevalent within organ donation. Therefore, this shows that from the point of organ donation, as well as receiving transplants, black people are less likely than white people to be involved. This leads to a multitude of problems as ethnicity can often play an important part in blood transfusions, stem cell transplants, and organ transplants due to how black donors are more likely to have rare blood and tissue types and black patients are more likely to require this in certain surgeries (NHS, 2015). Furthermore, black people are more likely to need an organ transplant than white people as they are more susceptible to hypertension, diabetes and certain forms of hepatitis (NHS, 2015). Therefore, this highlights the need within the NHS for people from a diverse background to register for organ donation, however, this is an impossibility whilst there is this distrust towards the medical profession, as well as this concept that ethnic minorities are treated differently to their white counterparts when it comes to receiving organ transplants. This shows that racial disparity in organ donation is still prevalent today, and causes harm to those of a diverse background who are not able to receive their necessary treatment in a timely manner.

Acknowledging these racial disparities within organ donations, as well as healthcare as a whole, is necessary in order to create an environment within healthcare which is inclusive for all. Particularly in the case of organ donation, it is detrimental to the health of people of diverse backgrounds to not participate in organ donation, whether this be due to the lack of knowledge surrounding this, or the lack of trust that has been created between these communities and healthcare. Therefore, this blog aimed to highlight the importance of removing the disparity in organ donation within different ethnic communities, in order to provide a more comfortable environment, as well as being able to successfully treat patients of an ethnically diverse background who require an organ transplant.

References

Bratton, C., Chavin, K., Baliga, P (2011). Racial disparities in organ donation and why. Controversies in Organ Allocation

Jawoniyi, O., Gormley, K., McGleenan, E., Rose, HR (2017). Organ donation and transplantation: Awareness and roles of healthcare professionals- A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Clinical Nursing. pp 726-738

NHS (2015). Call for black blood and organ donors to ‘Be There’ for their community. NHS. Available at: https://organdonation.nhs.uk/get-involved/news/call-for-black-blood-and-organ-donors-to-be-there-for-their-community/ (Accessed 12 December 2024)

NHS (2023). Increased proportion of people from ethnic minority backgrounds show their support for organ donation. NHS. Available at: https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/get-involved/news/increased-proportion-of-people-from-ethnic-minority-backgrounds-show-their-support-for-organ-donation/ (Accessed 12 December 2024)

Siminoff, L., Burant, C., Ibrahim, S (2006). Racial Disparities in Preferences and Perceptions Regarding Organ Donation. Journal of General Internal Medicine. pp 995- 1000

Yilmaz, T (2011). Importance of education in organ donation. Experimental and Clinical Transplantation: Official Journey of the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation. pp 370-375