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Facebook to make it easy to be organ donor

Facebook users in the United States and Britain can enroll as organ donors via links to official registries on the world's biggest social networking site, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday.

By The Associated Press | Published: May 2, 2012 Comment on this article

NEW YORK — Facebook wants to help you share your organs.

Users in the United States and Britain can enroll as organ donors via links to official registries on the world's biggest social networking site, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The links should make it easier for people who want to donate their organs to sign up.

photo - In this April 26, 2012 image released by ABC, Robin Roberts, host of "Good Morning America," right, talks to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, during an interview in Menlo Park, Calif., airing Tuesday, May 1, on "Good Morning America." Zuckerberg says U.S. and U.K. users will be able to enroll as organ donors via links on the world's biggest social networking site. Zuckerberg says his friendship with Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who had received a liver transplant before he died last year, helped spur the idea. (AP Photo/ABC, Rick Rowell) ORG XMIT: NYET110

In this April 26, 2012 image released by ABC, Robin Roberts, host of "Good Morning America," right, talks to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, during an interview in Menlo Park, Calif., airing Tuesday, May 1, on "Good Morning America." Zuckerberg says U.S. and U.K. users will be able to enroll as organ donors via links on the world's biggest social networking site. Zuckerberg says his friendship with Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who had received a liver transplant before he died last year, helped spur the idea. (AP Photo/ABC, Rick Rowell) ORG XMIT: NYET110

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Facebook users who are already organ donors can add that information to their profile page, now known as their timeline.

Zuckerberg said his friendship with Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who had received a liver transplant before he died last year, helped spur the idea.

More than 112,000 Americans are waiting for organs and 18 people die every day from the lack of available organs, according to Donate Life America, a nonprofit that is teaming with Facebook.

Zuckerberg announced the organ donor update to Facebook on Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”

Facebook Inc. is busy readying an initial public stock offering said to be pegged at $5 billion.