On Tuesday, May 1, Facebook introduced a new "life saving" tool - an optional "organ donor" status into Timeline profiles. Members in the United States and the United Kingdom can now publicly share whether they are registered organ donors, and why they registered to donate their organs. If they are not registered yet, Facebook provides an online link to the appropriate donor registry so users can sign up.

According to donor advocates, this initiative could prove crucial in raising awareness of the importance of life-saving organ transplants. The organ donor note shared will appear on a member's Timeline along with other "life events," such as college graduation, getting married or having a kid.

Increasing Awareness

"What we hope will happen is that by just having this simple tool, we think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told ABC in an exclusive interview for Good Morning America. "We think that can be a big part of helping solve this crisis that's out there."

Organ donors praised the social networking company's move, and said it has already had a considerable effect. According to Donate Life California, an organ donor registry that partnered with Facebook, the number of sign ups already climbed from 76 on Monday to 994 on Tuesday. "What the Facebook partnership has done is to give hope to all those people on the waiting list that maybe their lives will be changed and they will get a second chance at life," said Donate Life California CEO Charlene Zettel, as reported by SFGate.

"As of 12:30pm today, the Donate Life California registry has increased its online donor sign ups by nearly 800 percent from yesterday thanks to this morning's announcement of the partnership with Facebook! Thank you Facebook!" the donor registry posted on its Facebook page.

The Source Counts

Tony Borders, a spokesman for the California Transplant Donor Network, said that Facebook can provide huge exposure, as the information not only raises awareness, but it comes from friends and reliable people in a person's network. Facebook has 901 million users worldwide. There are 161 million users in the United States alone, and more than 30 million in the United Kingdom. Sharing a donor status on Facebook is "a pretty wonderful way for people to get the information, to understand it and to make a decision," added Borders. "They could have the feeling that if their friends are doing it, it could be an OK thing."

For now, the organ donation feature on Facebook is available only for users in the United States and the United Kingdom. According to ZDNet, however, the social network plans to make the feature available to more countries in the near future.

(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)