Organ Donation Policies

Organ donation is when a person donates an organ or a portion of an organ to be transplanted into the body of another person. According to the US Government Information on Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation, the first successful transplant happened in 1954 with a living donor and involved identical twins and a kidney transplant.

Types

• According to the U.S. Government website, Organ Donor, organ donation is divided into four categories: organ and tissue from living donor, after brain death, after cardiac death, and whole body donation.

Identification

• The Organ Donor website says most people should consider themselves potential organ and tissue donors. Age is not a factor for donation, as donors can be elderly or even newborn. Few health conditions completely rule out organ donation.

Considerations

• Few conditions rule out donation and include active and severe infections, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and active and spreading cancer, with the exception of brain tumors confined to the brain stem. Most diseases and chronic conditions do not rule out organ donation.

Misconceptions

• People may worry about when an organ may be removed and under what circumstances. According to Donate Life America, organs can only be donated with a family's consent and will only be removed when all efforts to save a patient's life have been exhausted and brain death has been confirmed.