Facebook's new feature lets donors sign up to 'share' organs

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced on a US television chat show the arrival of a new tool that will allow users to share their status as an "organ donor" on their timelines, media reports said.

Zuckerberg said that the project was inspired by Facebook members who have used the site to solve problems creatively. He hopes this new initiative will spread awareness and encourage people to register as donors.

"People are using the same social tools that they're using just to keep in touch with people on a day-to-day basis to solve these important social issues.

"So, we figured, okay, well, could we do anything that would help people solve other types of issues, like all of the people who need organ donations in the world?

"And we came up with this pretty simple thing which we're hopeful can help out just in the same way that people have done all these other things," Zuckerberg told 'Good Morning America' show.

Zuckerberg has also said that his friendship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who had received a liver transplant before he died last year, partly inspired the idea.

Though the initiative is first being introduced in the US and Britain, but Zuckerberg said that "millions around the world" needed organ transplants, and the concept is likely to be extended if it is successful. PTI MOT MOT