Organ donation is the process through which human organs are obtained for transplant surgery. Most organs used in transplant operations come from young, otherwise healthy patients who suffer brain death. Brain death is a permanent end of brain function. Donors often suffer brain death often following a fatal head injury. Organs commonly transplanted from one person to another include the heart, kidney, liver, and lung.
Advances in organ transplant surgery and powerful drugs to prevent organ rejection have made transplants an established medical treatment for many diseases and injuries. Organ donation can save lives and restore health. Most major religions permit such donations. The supply of human organs falls far short of the demand, however. As a result, medical professionals must make difficult ethical decisions in obtaining human organs and assigning them to people in need of transplants.
In most countries, doctors must obtain permission to remove organs from the dead to use for transplant. In the United States and the United Kingdom, people can use donor cards or mark a space on their driver’s license to give permission to donate their organs after death. In practice, however, many hospitals consult the family even if the patient has signed an organ donor card. In Australia, donor permission is required. But final approval must come from the family. In some other countries doctors may remove organs for transplant after death unless there is written evidence that the person does not want to be a donor. Such countries include Austria and Belgium. This system is called presumed consent. It increases the supply of human organs available for transplant. But under such a system, some people who would not want to donate their organs might become donors.
Medical professionals are investigating ways to expand the supply of human organs for transplant. Some ways include increasing live donation and providing compensation for organ donors. More than one-third of transplanted kidneys in the United States come from live donors. A person can donate one kidney and remain healthy. Live liver donation is also becoming more common. In this procedure, a lobe of the donor’s liver is transplanted and grows into a fully functioning organ. Most living organ donors are close relatives of the recipient. But about 20 percent of live organ donations involve unrelated people.
In the United States, the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 prohibits the exchange of organs for any kind of payment. However, lawmakers are considering legislation that allows compensation to donors to encourage more live organ donations.
