'Donation after circulatory death' is on the rise

Brain death is a top source of organ donation

Brain death is a significant source of organ donations—approximately 40% of organs in the US and the UK are recovered from people who experience brain death. Patients declared brain dead and hooked up to intensive care unit machines will still have oxygen flowing to organs like the heart, lungs, and kidneys—preserving those organs.

You can sign up to donate your organs at this website

A single person who chooses to donate their organs upon death can provide organs for as many as eight people. You can sign up to become an organ donor or update your donation status information at this website, or you can typically sign up at your state's Department of Motor Vehicles. Many states allow individuals to declare which tissues and organs you consent to donate (i.e. organs, eyes, and skin tissue). It's recommended to discuss your decision with your family so they are aware of your wishes.

Research advances suggest death takes much longer than we realized

Recent research indicates that organs, including the brain, are better at handling a lack of oxygen after the heart stops beating than previously known. Such findings may open up possibilities that include someday reversing certain death processes and expanding the availability of organs available for organ donations. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Organ donation isn't usually logistically possible if you die at home

Since organs need to be well-preserved for organ donation, with oxygen flowing through the body, internal organs often aren't viable for organ donation if someone dies at home. But some tissues—like eye corneas and skin tissue—may still be donated since they remain usable for a longer period without oxygen flow.

Donated hearts remain viable three times longer now with new tech

Advances in organ perfusion systems have significantly lengthened the amount of time donated hearts can remain viable for transplant, expanding the possibilities for donor organs to wider geographic areas. "Heart in a box" devices, developed in recent years, enable effective oxygen flow in the donor heart during transport, which means that hearts can now travel farther to potential recipients and still be in good condition.

Several years after the English law changed, organ donation rates haven't improved

A 2024 analysis found that several years after England changed its organ donation system to an opt-out donation system there was no improvement to the country's organ donation rates, perhaps highlighting the need for better understanding and education around the law.

Living donations most commonly involve a kidney or part of a liver

In 2023, more than 6,900 transplants were made possible thanks to living donors. Living donation is when a living person donates an organ or part of an organ—usually one of their two kidneys or part of the liver, since that organ can regenerate in a healthy person. Much more rarely, living donors donate other organs. Living donations often occur when someone wants to ensure a loved one has certainty that they will quickly receive a needed organ.

Artificial intelligence may improve organ donation systems—and even organ health

Mayo Clinic transplant experts suggest that artificial intelligence could potentially improve organ donation systems in several ways, including better identifying patients most at risk for organ rejection, enhancing donor-recipient matching, and helping to avoid organ transplant needs by identifying health issues earlier.

Thousands of donated human kidneys are thrown away annually

Ten donated kidneys are thrown away daily even though thousands of people are awaiting a kidney transplant. Listen to a kidney doctor and a 2012 economics Nobel laureate discuss why this happens and how the organ transplantation system may be improved. Transplant centers are penalized for low transplant survival rates, they note, and that contributes to why hospitals may decide certain organs are just too risky to use.

3 US maps illustrate transplants, donors, and organ waitlist additions—by state

National UNOS tracking data feeds into these US maps that record all the transplants, donors, and waitlist additions in the last 12 months. California, for example, had the most transplantations in 2025—totaling about 5,200—but it also has the longest waiting list, with more than 20,000 additions in that same period.

More than 40 states have passed versions of the Uniform Declaration of Death Act

The 1981 model law, now enacted in most states, is the legal basis for death in the US. There have been many efforts to amend this law, citing the need for more transparency to improve trust between families and the medical profession, though none have moved forward. Alterations to the law could have implications for organ donations and removing life support.

In 2023, at least 6 people were charged with stealing body parts

A recent case involving alleged trafficking in stolen human body parts charged that there was a nationwide network of individuals who bought and sold human remains. The charges alleged, among other things, that from 2018 through 2022, the manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School's Anatomical Gifts Program stole organs and other parts of cadavers that had been donated for medical research and education. In late 2025, that Harvard morgue manager was sentenced to 96 months in prison.

'Human composting' is an eco-friendly burial method legal in only a few states

Formally known as natural human organ reduction, this process relies on the same principles as standard composting and breaks down the body over many weeks, turning it into a type of soil. It's currently only legal in a handful of states.

A 13-year-old was declared brain-dead yet went through puberty on a ventilator

This podcast details Jahi McMath's highly controversial case. She was declared brain-dead in 2013 following surgical complications, but her family, citing religious beliefs, kept her connected to a ventilator for the five years that followed. She continued to grow and went through puberty before being issued a second death certificate in New Jersey.

Watch this video letter (via Facebook) from a kidney recipient to his donor

A kidney recipient named Justin reads a letter he wrote to his deceased donor about how the person's generous kidney donation saved his parents from having to watch him suffer and his brother from having the pressure of perhaps being his only shot at a life-saving transplant.

The Lazarus Effect is when a heart begins beating on its own after declared death

Formally called autoresuscitation, this rare phenomenon occurs when someone is declared dead following a cardiac arrest but their heart beats again without help—making it seem like the person came back to life. Doctors don't know the exact cause.

In China, deepfaking a dead loved one has become a growing industry

Digital replicas of the deceased provide individuals with another way to process grief in a culture with long-standing traditions of communicating with ancestors. The emotional and ethical implications of "digital immortality" are complicated further by cases of actors impersonating deceased relatives during deepfake video calls to hide their deaths.

This Indiana medical school encouraged students to get to know their cadavers' families

The school's anatomy professor instructed medical students to think of the cadavers they worked with as their "first patients"—using their names to acknowledge that this was a person and to exchange letters with the cadaver's family members if they agreed to participate. At the conclusion of the course, families were invited to a lab-based memorial service.

Thanatology is the study of death and dying

Watch this video exploring the evolution in how researchers are studying and understanding death in the context of recent scientific research. CPR to restart hearts, ventilators, and other discoveries have challenged the way we think of death and scientifically upended the idea of death as a single moment.

Most Americans are now dying at home, reversing 20th century trends

For most of the 21st and 20th centuries most Americans died in hospital settings. But in 2016, home-based deaths overtook hospitals; most Americans are now dying at home, likely fueled by individual preferences to die at home or to receive at-home palliative care.

Each day, about 60 US pregnancies end in stillbirth

This online memorial for families who experienced the unexpected death of a fetus 20 weeks or older is the result of ProPublica reporters inviting 60 families to share their baby's name and answer some questions about their unfulfilled wishes for their children. About 21,000 babies are stillborn in the US annually. About the same number of children die in the US during their first year of life.

Gifting money is one way to avoid death taxes

Gifting money while you're alive is one way people avoid estate and inheritance taxes. There is a yearly cap on how much you can give to a person before that money is taxed—but there isn't a cap on how many people you can give money to in a year.

Read what actions helped support grieving individuals during times of anguish

Concrete acts of kindness that buoyed New York Times readers after the deaths of loved ones varied widely. Examples include: friends sending emojis requiring no reply, coming over without asking to clean a grieving individual's bathroom, feeding them, taking them for periodic outdoor walks, and simply sitting with them so they weren't alone. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Some UK doctors pushed for broad 'do not resuscitate' orders for autistic adults during COVID

The controversial push was to create such orders without individuals' or their families' consent, underscoring modern-day prejudice against people on the spectrum.

The spread of fraudulent stem cell treatments

All the coverage of research into promising (but often unproven) medical treatments involving stem cells has created conditions allowing some people to engage in activities regulators describe as scams. As this news article explains, attorneys general in at least seven states have taken legal action against businesses that promised (costly) stem cell treatments but allegedly engaged in fraud.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.