Running head: WHY NOT ME?

Why Not Me?
African Americans and Organ Donation
XXXX XXXXX
Winston Salem State University

CONTENTS
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
THE IMBALANCE OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
THE ROOT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN DISPROPORTION OF ORGAN
NEED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

THE ROOT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN DISPROPORTION OF
DONATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Abstract

This article takes a brief look at an informal discussion of three groups of African Americans on organ donation as well as the author’s personal decision to become an organ and tissue donor. The disproportion of African American need to African American donation and the root causes are explored. Religious beliefs and uncertainties about the death process held the highest concerns in the three groups.

WHY NOT ME?
African Americans and Organ Donation I was 15 years old when I found out that Billy was my brother. My father explained that Billy’s mother had married someone else. He knew Billy’s stepfather was a fine man with much more to offer a little boy than did a wild teenager like himself, so he stayed away. The subject of Billy never came up again until some years later when I received a call from my father. He wanted me to know that Billy was in desperate need of a kidney transplant and wanted me to consider the possibility of being