Facebook wants to know if you’re an organ donor

Facebook has launched its new organ donation tool that allows people to tell their family and friends of their willingness to become organ donors.

The tool has gone live in Ireland today and people can now signal their intent to become organ donors in the event of their death to their friends and family with the social networking site’s new “Health and well-being” button. The button also allows you to tell people if you have overcome an illness, quit a habit or have a new dietary regime.

It’s all part of Facebook’s on-going quest to migrate all human interaction to the social networking site and will undoubtedly increase the number of narcissistic, navel-gazing posts that currently clog up peoples’ timelines.

Unlike Facebook’s much-maligned privacy policy, the organ donation tool does seem to be a good idea with some very positive benefits to wider society.

In Ireland people need only tell their next kin of their desire to be an organ donor for their wishes to be carried out when they die. This tool makes it easier for individuals to share that information with their family and friends and increase Ireland’s relatively low organ donor list. With around two million people in Ireland on Facebook the benefits could be substantial as many people carry organ donor card but never tell their relatives.

Facebook's director of policy Simon Milner said of the development “People in Ireland will be able to show on their Timelines that they wish to be an organ donor. We hope that Irish Facebook users will be able to reduce the number of people who die needlessly waiting for an organ each year."