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Health: June 22, organ donation awareness day
Health: June 22, organ donation awareness day
(franceinfo)
The Biomedicine Agency organizes each year, on June 22, a national day of reflection, in order to encourage the French to share their wishes with their loved ones. 22,000 people are waiting for a transplant in the country.
Jean-Marie Guillon donated a kidney to his wife. In front of medical students, he came to convince and testify to the importance of organ donation. “It’s either dialysis or death. I’m taking a small risk, but it’s not that big compared to another operation. It’s going to immobilize me for a month, but after a month, we left, two”, he confides. Every day, an average of 15 transplants take place in France, but also two to three deaths due to the lack of donors.
If 80% of French people say they are in favor of donations after their death, the opposition rate of families is 37%. This is the subject that the associations wish to work on. “When we have a refusal which was not that of the person concerned but which is a bad transmission, this person will die for nothing, and the person who could have received the organs will also die, for lack of organs”, explains Philippe Patton, member of the association for the donation of human organs and tissues. In France, everyone is a presumed donor. 22,000 people are still waiting for a transplant.
