How Honest Is NYC’s Organ Donation System?

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“New Yorkers Give Support to Organ Donation,” published by The New York Times on March 16, 2025, highlights the increasing number of donors and transplants in New York, making it an organ transplantation leader in the United States. The article discusses the history of organ donation in New York, citing classic transplant cases, such as the first heart transplant, which took place in 1967 at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. The article also cites statistics, stating that in 2024, the Metro area registered more than 1.4 million donors, a 6 percent increase from the 1.3 million people who donated in 2020, which is the largest amount of donors ever recorded in the city. According to the article, New Yorkers took an interest in donating after the hospitalization of New York moguls such as BlackRock’s co-founder, Stephen Schwarzman, who received a kidney transplant in 2021. In response to Schwarzman’s transplant, BlackRock, the financial company, contributed $10 million to the transplant program at Mount Sinai. Furthermore, the article notes the increase in patients applying for transplantation surgeries, with Mount Sinai performing 600 transplant operations in 2024 alone, placing it on the list of top transplant centers in the U.S., alongside UCLA and Mayo Clinic. However, the article emphasizes that the number of patients needing organs outweighs the donors, creating a persistent gap in the supply. The article advocates for New Yorkers to contribute to organ donation campaigns, urging them to discuss the topic with their loved ones, saying, “organ donors need not die. They can lose their lives and save others in the process.” In addition, the article presents an anonymous donor’s testimony, offering an account of how the recipient of the organ expressed gratitude to the donor’s family, stating, “When death is your only option, it means a lot to know while expiring that we can do just one thing for humanity, and that is donating our organs. ”

The original article