As we reported earlier, Facebook has today rolled out a new feature that allows users in the US and UK to share that they’re an organ donor on their Timelines. ABC News has now released an interview with Mark Zuckerberg that explains more about the thinking behind its introduction.
Zuckerberg says that having seen how Facebook users were utilising the platform to solve social issues after disasters such recent tornadoes in Missouri and last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the company was spurred to do something more directly.
Why organ donation? The on-the-job experiences of Zuckerberg’s student pediatrician girlfriend Priscilla Chan were a big factor, the company’s CEO says, along with seeing the effect a liver transplant had on extending the life of his friend Steve Jobs. “That definitely, I think, was something that we all had in mind as we were building this out… His story is just one of many, of people who both were able to have an organ transplant that made his life longer and he was extremely thankful for that,” Zuckerberg told ABC News.
Zuckerberg admits that this won’t change things overnight, but he believes that it will help convince people who are undecided about registering to donate their organs to do so.
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You can watch a clip of the interview below:
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