Advances in medical science have made transplant surgery increasingly successful.

Transplantation is no longer considered a short-term experimental solution, but rather a long-term desirable treatment option to a deadly medical disease.

The major problem is obtaining enough organs for the growing number of Americans needing them.

There are more than 90,000 Americans waiting for organs to become available.

Every 10 minutes a new name is added to the waiting list. Each day, 17 people die waiting for a lifesaving transplant.

In contrast to the large number of people awaiting transplant, there are approximately 10,000 organ donors in the United States each year. Most donors contribute multiple organs however; there are still a great number of people waiting for transplant.

Discuss your wishes with your family. In Mississippi, your legal next-of-kin must give permission for donation to occur. In most cases, the family will honor their loved one's wish to donate. However, in many situations the family is unsure what to do since their loved one never brought up the topic of donation.

Sign a donor card.

Sign your driver's license.

Tell others.

Consider yourself a potential organ and tissue donor. Your medical condition at the time of death will determine what organs and tissues can be donated.

Relatives can also donate a deceased family member's organs and tissues. The legal next-of-kin must always give consent for organ donation to occur in Mississippi.

Contrary to poplar belief, age makes little difference in determining if you can donate. In one case, here in Mississippi, an 84-year-old man's family donated his organs. His liver went to a seventeen year old boy who lived in New York. Even further evidence that age is not a factor: The oldest documented organ donor in the United States was ninety-six years old.

The perception that a donor card carries a "death wish". Some people admit they are afraid to carry a signed donor card. They fear it might influence hospital staff to withhold lifesaving medical treatment in order to recover organs.

Some people think organ and tissue donation is against their religious beliefs.

Many fear that the body will be mutilated. They think donation hinder funeral arrangments.

Lack of education and awareness of the current status of organ transplantation and the dire need for lifesaving organs.

An overall distrust of medical professionals.

Many times the subject is over looked. Families don't about donation while they're in a state of grief. Hospital staff mistakenly think that they are "sparing the family from more grief" by over looking the subject.

Certain kinds of transplants can be done using living donors.

Almost 50% of all kidney transplants are performed with living donors.

The donor is often related to the person in need of the transplant.

Both donor and recipient can live a normal life with just one healthy kidney.

There are new methods of transplanting a portion of a living adult's liver to a child needing a liver transplant.

A portion of lung or pancreas can also be transplanted from a living donor.

Needed organs include the heart, kidney, pancreas, lungs, liver and intestines.

Tissues that can be donated to help others includes the eyes, skin, bone, heart valves and tendons.

No! Organ and tissue recovery takes place only after all efforts to save your life have been exhausted and death has been legally declared.

The doctors working to save your life are entirely separate from the medical team that would be involved in recovering your organs and tissues.

No! Donation costs nothing to the donor's family or estate.

The donor's family is responsible for hospital charges not involved with the donation, and the donor's funeral arrangements.

When your legal-next-of-kin gives permission for donation to occur, they can give consent for any needed organs and tissues; or they make specific requests.

In the past, you could sign the back of your Mississippi Driver's License to designate your wish to be an organ and/or tissue donor. This has changed!

Now, you must tell the reviewer that you wish to be a donor at the time of license renewal.

A red heart is placed on the Driver's License to indicate your desire to donate.

Currently, the Mississippi Department of Highway Safety does not provide for the donor designation to be made if your driver's license is renewed through the internet.