"Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, announced today that the social network is making it easier for its one billion users to register to donate and broadcast their organ donor status to their networks.
The hope is that the viral effect of do-gooder peer pressure will move thousands of people to become donors to one of the more than 114,000 Americans waiting for livers, hearts, kidneys or other organs."
Mark Zuckerberg: You know what's cool? A billion organ donors | Technology | guardian.co.uk
While I have an initial instinctive negative reaction to any new Facebook 'scheme' (they've definitely lost the branding war with me - I admit a similar headline from Google would have the opposite gut reflex) this is actually a great idea. Organ donation is an area which needs improvement, and the main barrier is the fact that people have to make a conscious decision to donate, and it is more the depressing and negative feeling when considering one's own death and body parts that puts them off, rather than a rational objection (hence if there was assumed consent, and people could opt-out if they wanted, studies show few people actually would). So putting it out in the open, and tapping into the viral power of online peer relations, has to be a good thing. Also will mean that quite literally, people will actually have to put their heart into it, when they click 'like'.
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