Black ministers urging congregations to become organ, tissue, blood donors

Black ministers are urging their congregations to become blood, tissue, and organ donors.

Although about 35% of people awaiting transplants are black, blacks make up only 11.5% of all organ donors and just 8% of bone marrow donors. Consequently, blacks spend up to twice as long on transplant waiting lists as whites, since blood and tissue matches are closest within races.

"I think there's a myth or mystery, not only with African-Americans but with all religions, [that] we need all of our body to get to heaven," said the Rev. David Hoey of Calvary Tabernacle Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. "That's not the case, because the soul separates from this earthly body. That's going to stay here. The spirit is what's leaving."

Last May, the Congress of National Black Churches (CNBC), made up of eight denominations, decided to make organ and tissue donation one of its top health issues this year. Religious leaders believe that this decision will go a long way toward increasing the number of black organ and tissue donors.

"The church is the focal point of the black community," said Clive Callender, MD, a transplant surgeon at Howard University and head of the National Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Program. "Having CNBC working to help us solve the donor crisis . . . assures us we're going to be successful.