Why more blacks do not donate organs

Jet, Dec 11, 1995

When Willa McClain's son died of a massive heart attack, she immediately donated his organs to medical science.

"I just did it for the need that I knew was out there," says Ms. McClain, a nurse in Nashville, TN, "My son, Vincent R. McClain, was 32. It was a way for me to know and feel that my son could give something back to the community and world. He had died so young, this was a way of making his life meaningful for someone else."

Ms. McClain, who also has promised her organs to medical science, is among a small number of Blacks who are willing to donate their organs. In 1993, there were only 388 Blacks who gave organs to science, while they were still alive -- compared with 1,950 Whites, according to statistics compiled by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in Richmond, VA.

Among the organs that one can donate while he or she is still alive are bone marrow, a kidney, a lung and part of a liver, experts said.

Also in 1993, there were 554 Black people who died and their organs were used to help others compared with 3,802 White people who donated their organs after they died, UNOS reported.

There are currently 11,481 Blacks who are waiting for organs--compared with 25,046 White patients.

There is a critical need for organ donors, but why won't more Blacks donate their organs?

JET asked that question to a number of experts and organ donors. The reasons more Blacks are not organ donors include simply being afraid of the whole idea due to a basic lack of information about the issue, racism, religious myths and misconception, fear of death and a distrust of the medical community, the experts said.

Dr. Clive Callender, director of Howard University Hospital's Transplant Center in Washington, D.C., explained that Blacks aren't fully aware of the transplant donor process.

Callender, who lectures widely on the organ donor issue, also said Blacks believe in "religious myths and misconception." He cited an example of how some Blacks feel about donating their eyes to science after they are dead, "If you don't have your eyes and you go to the Pearly Gates, you won't be able to see great-grand mama in the Hereafter."

Dr. Rodrick Stevenson, noted transplant surgeon at Meharry Medical College and Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, TN, noted that many Blacks don't donate organs because they believe, "I have to go to Heaven with everything I came here with."

Ms. McClain points out, "I think it's more of a cultural thing. Black people want to leave this world with everything they came here with."

Dr. Callender is also principal investigator of the National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP), which educates minorities about the significance of organ transplants. He says Blacks need more information about organ transplants.

Dr. Lonnie Bristow, president of the American Medical Association, agrees that people are reluctant to donate organs because of their lack of knowledge.

"It's probably because of a lack of basic knowledge about how important it is and how non-threatening it is to be a donor. They may have fears or concerns that haven't been answered," Dr. Bristow explained.

Racism and a basic distrust of medical science is another key reason Blacks tend not to donate organs. Dr. Stevenson noted, "Many Blacks don't want to sign as organ donors because they feel if `I'm in an accident and they know I'm an organ donor, they might want to use my organ. I go into the hospital to have a toenail removed and come out with no kidney or something like that."'

Dr. Callender notes that many Blacks don't donate organs because "They feel, `If I am Black and society has been discriminatory to me in life, why would it be any different in death. All of my organs will go to Whites,'--which is not true," Callender stresses, "because there are more White donors than Blacks."

He also said many Blacks don't trust the medical community. "In the past, the African Americans have been used as guinea pigs like in the Tuskegee incident. But our response to that is `yes that was the case but now we have moved forward and make sure that those kind of things don't occur.'"

Another reason more Blacks don't donate organs is because of a strong fear of death. Many Blacks are superstitious and just don't want to even talk about dying, said Dr. Stevenson, who is also chairman of the Community Education Committee of Tennessee Donor Services.

"They are afraid of the whole idea of talking things up, that talking may make it happen," said Dr. Stevenson, who is also a board member of the Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO). "Dying is something that many Blacks are uncomfortable with; they don't want to sit around and talk about the possibility of leaving here and dying before your time. It's like the old superstition, `don't sit in a wheelchair, you may become crippled."

Marcia Norris, of Oxnard, CA, is a registered organ donor. She feels that many Blacks don't donate organs because they feel their body will not look proper during funeral services. "Even at a funeral, they want the whole body content to be there. They want the whole body there for viewing. There's a fear that they are going to miss something, that something will be taken away if they donate our organs."