Organ and Tissue Donation questions

Sign up with your state's donor registry, online or in person at your motor vehicle office (DMV). You can also join the National Donate Life Registry at RegisterMe.org without visiting the DMV. Donation professionals check both, and the most recent registration is the one honored.

Tell the people closest to you about your decision. In a hospital, families are often the first to be asked, and it helps them to know what you wanted. It is also a good idea to put your wishes in your advance directive.

Almost anyone. Adults can register regardless of age or medical history, and there are few absolute exclusions. When the time comes, doctors review your medical history and decide which organs or tissues can be used. Having an illness doesn't automatically rule you out, so please sign up and let the medical team decide.

No. Organdonor.gov says there is no age limit to donating or to signing up. When you die, doctors decide whether you can donate, and the health of your organs matters more than your birthday. Young people can record their wishes too (see the next question).

Teens ages 15 to 17 can record their wishes in the National Donate Life Registry, but a parent or legal guardian makes the final decision until age 18. State registries may have their own age rules. Talking about donation as a family helps everyone understand what a young person would want.

After death, you can donate:

• Organs: heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas and intestines
• Tissues: corneas (the clear front part of the eye), heart valves, bone and connective tissue, skin, veins and arteries, nerves, and birth tissue

According to organdonor.gov and Donate Life America, one donor can save up to eight lives and help more than 75 people through tissue donation. Two corneas can restore sight to two people.

Donated tissue can help many people. Corneas can restore sight. Skin helps people with severe burns heal. Heart valves can replace damaged ones, bone can help prevent amputation and support healing, and veins can restore blood flow in heart bypass surgery. Registering as an organ, eye and tissue donor covers all of these.

While you're alive, you can donate a kidney, part of your liver, and certain other organs and tissues. Most living donors give to a family member or close friend, but some donate to someone they don't know. The recipient's insurance usually covers the donor's medical costs, but donors can lose wages or face other costs while recovering, and some have had trouble keeping their insurance at the same level and rate. Living donation is typically safe, but it is surgery, and recovery takes time. A transplant center will evaluate you carefully first.

Yes, but it is a separate process from organ donation. Whole-body donation sends the entire body to a medical school or research program, and you usually sign up with the program ahead of time. Rules differ by state and by program. The American Association for Anatomy suggests donating only to an accredited university or college or through a state anatomical program, so start by contacting your state's anatomical board or a nearby accredited medical school.

Studies can last a year or two, and sometimes longer. What happens afterward depends on the program. Drexel University, for example, returns the cremated remains to the family, while UC Davis cannot return remains and instead scatters or buries them under state law. Ask what the program does before you sign up. Programs can also decline a donation, for example because of certain infectious diseases or major trauma, so it helps to have a backup plan. Many programs cover the cost of preparation and cremation, but some ask the family to pay part of the transport, so ask what is covered. Because the body usually goes straight to the program, many families hold a memorial service instead of a funeral with the body present.

A person can sometimes be both an organ donor and a whole-body donor, but the body must stay intact for study, so ask the program.

No. Your care team's first duty is to save your life. Donation is considered only after every effort has been made, and the doctors treating you are separate from the organ recovery team. Being a registered donor doesn't change how hard doctors work to help you.

No. The donor's family is never charged for organ and tissue donation. The organ procurement organization pays the costs of recovery. Your family is still responsible for hospital bills for care before donation, and for funeral costs. If you have a concern, ask the hospital or donation organization how bills are handled.

Yes. Donation doesn't change the way your body looks in a casket. The recovery is done in a sterile operating room with the same care as any surgery, and the process does not change how the body looks in a casket. Many donor families have a full funeral or viewing. If you are worried, tell your funeral director that your loved one was a donor.

No. In the United States, it is against federal law. The National Organ Transplant Act makes it illegal to knowingly acquire, receive or transfer a human organ for "valuable consideration" (payment) for use in transplantation. The penalty is a fine of up to $50,000, up to five years in prison, or both. The law does allow a living donor's reasonable expenses, such as travel, housing and lost wages, to be covered. Organs are given as gifts, not sold. Be wary of any offer of money for an organ, which is illegal and often dangerous.

As of July 30, 2026, there were 109,817 people on the national transplant waiting list, according to organdonor.gov. More than 49,000 transplants were performed in 2025. Every 7 minutes, another person is added to the list, and 12 people die each day while waiting for a transplant. These numbers change daily.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) runs the national waiting list and the matching system, and each organ has its own rules. The factors include blood type and body size, how sick the patient is, the distance between the donor's hospital and the patient's hospital, how long the person has waited, and whether the patient is available and well enough for the transplant. The organ itself matters most, since some organs last outside the body much longer than others. A heart or lungs must be transplanted within about six hours, a kidney within about 36. Allocation rules are updated from time to time, so the details can change.

The system is designed to be. Patients are ranked by medical and practical factors, and the federal government lists things that are not considered, including ethnicity, sex, religion, financial status, celebrity status and citizenship. The rules are revised over time. In 2025, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the federal agency that oversees the system, took new steps to strengthen patient safety and oversight of organ procurement organizations. The biggest challenge is supply, since far more people are waiting than there are organs available. Registering as a donor is one of the best ways to help.

Many faiths support donation as an act of love and compassion, and most leave the decision to the individual. For example, the Catholic Church sees it as charity and self-sacrifice. Many Protestant denominations encourage it. All four branches of Judaism support it, and Jewish teaching places great weight on saving a life. Islam permits it to save a life. Hindus and Buddhists generally view it as a personal decision. Jehovah's Witnesses treat it as a matter of individual decision. The Amish may agree to it when it is for the recipient's health and welfare, and Quakers have no official position, so the choice is left to the individual. If you have questions, please talk with your own faith leader.

Yes. Healthy dogs and cats can give blood to help other animals. Pets don't donate organs, but many veterinary hospitals and blood banks run donor programs. For example, Cornell's program looks for dogs age 1 to 5 weighing at least 62 pounds and indoor cats age 1 to 5 weighing at least 9 pounds, with a calm temperament, no medicines and no transfusion history. Donors return every two to three months and receive perks such as free yearly checkups. Requirements vary, so ask your veterinarian or a local veterinary school if a program is near you.