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Article: Organ donation among African Americans: opportunities for increasing donor rates.
- Article from:
- Hospital Topics
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Executive editor's note. As the regular writer of In Context I am especially pleased to introduce an article by senior authors Dr. Roger Durand and Dr. Phillip J. Decker on a timely subject. I attest to only modest contributions to their work.--PB.
In the United States the number of African American organ donors continues to be low relative to the demand for transplantable human organs. In 1999, for example, African Americans constituted 11.2 percent of all cadaveric donors (UNOS 2001a). Yet, in that same year African Americans comprised 25.5 percent of those on the National Transplant Waiting List (UNOS 2001b). Thus, there exists an acute shortage of organs ...