The Next iPhone Update Will Help Users Become Organ Donors

A new Apple feature will soon let iPhone users register to save lives. The Guardian reports that Apple's upcoming iOS 10 upgrade will allow iPhone users to become organ donors at the press of a button. The new feature will be added to the existing Health app and will let users quickly register as donors and provide information on organ donation.  

Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Associated Press he started thinking about ways to encourage organ donations after Steve Jobs’s "excruciating" wait for a liver transplant. (The organ Jobs received in 2009 is credited with extending his life, however briefly; he died in 2011.) He hopes that the new organ donor registration option will encourage more people to become donors by making the sign-up process quick and easy.

In order to bring organ donation registration to iPhones, Apple has teamed up with Donate Life America, a nonprofit organization that operates a national registry of organ donors. In a press statement issued by Apple, Donate Life CEO and president David Fleming explained that the new iPhone feature will not only facilitate quick registration but help people become more aware of the broader importance of organ donations.

“On average, one person dies every hour in the United States waiting for an organ transplant because the demand for lifesaving transplants far exceeds the available supply of organs—and one donor can save as many as eight lives,” Fleming explained. “By working with Apple to bring the National Donate Life Registry to the Health app on iPhone, we’re making it easier for people to find out about organ, eye, and tissue donation and quickly register. This is a huge step forward that will ultimately help save lives.”