One in two Hongkongers don't know how to become organ donors, poll reveals

One in two Hongkongers don't know how to go about donating their organs, a poll on cornea donation has found.

And doctors say anyone who wants to donate their organs should be able to register to do so when they turn 18 and apply for an identity card.

The Chinese University poll released yesterday found that Hongkongers were more accepting of organ donation, with almost two-thirds of the 1,002 respondents saying they were willing to donate their corneas when they died.

But only 21 per cent of them had registered to do so; 54 per cent said they did not know how.

Doctors from the Ophthalmological Society and College of Ophthalmologists, which commissioned the survey, called for more efforts to educate the public on how to register as donors, amid a shortage.

"In some countries, people are given the organ donation registration form when they get their driver's licence … This can be done in Hong Kong, too, when people turn 18 and get their identity cards," Dr Chow Pak-chin, the college's president, said.