Organ Donations

Andy Tookey gained via OIA the number of people who have consented to be an organ donor on their driver’s licence.

We have 3,279,627 licensed drivers in NZ. 51.9% of us have agreed to be an organ donor in case of death, or 1,730,299. Pleased to see it is over 50%. I wonder how someone who refuses to be an organ donor will feel if they ever need a transplant themselves?

The breakdown by gender is interesting. 50.9% of licensed drivers are male and 49.1% female. That suggests fewer women get a license. Also 0.003% are of indeterminate gender. Not sure if that means inter-sexual, or that they didn’t fill the form in clearly!

The organ donation rates by gender are 49.1% for men, 54.9% for women and 39.3% for indeterminate. That is a significantly higher rate for women, than men. Are men more selfish than women? Or more likely to have a cultural or religious reason not to want to be a donor?