The site seeks to help the 114,000 people in the United States and millions across the world who are waiting for life saving heart, kidney or liver transplants. Friends and family members will be alerted when a user updates their organ donation status.
Zuckerberg and Sandberg say that people die each day waiting for organ transplants because they’re are not enough donors to meet the need.
"Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis," said Zuckerberg and Sandberg in a release. "We believe that by simply telling people that you’re an organ donor, the power of sharing and connection can play an important role."
The new feature will be "only available in some countries," initally with links provided to organ registries in the UK and US.
Zuckerberg says that a person can add they’re an organ donor on their timeline, and share their story about when, where or why they decided to become a donor.
The organ status can help a lot of friends and families see that a user is signing up to an organ registry and Facebook hopes this will encourage other users to do the same.
Zuckerberg told ABC’s Robin Roberts that if the new feature takes off it can it can have a significant impact on the organ availability crisis.
"Facebook is really about communicating and telling stories," said Zuckerberg. "We think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation, and that they want to participate in this with their friends. And that can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that’s out there."
Users can sign up to be an organ donor by clicking the new ‘Health and Wellbeing’ button on their timeline.
Zuckerberg said his friendship with late Apple founder Steve Jobs, who had a liver transplant in 2009 before succumbing to cancer in 2011, inspired him to launch the organ donation feature.
The Facebook CEO says that since Jobs was able to get an organ transplant he was able to live a few years longer.
"That definitely, I think, was something that we all had in mind as we were building this out," Zuckerberg told Roberts. "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."
The Facebook founder is hopeful that the new feature will have a positive outcome.
"Even if this doesn’t touch everyone, I hope this can make a real impact," he said.
This isn’t the first time the Facebook has implemented ‘life saving’ tools on the site. In December 2011, Facebook introduced ‘Lifeline‘ which alerts the social networking site to potential suicide attempts.
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