England changed to an organ donation opt-out system in May 2020

A law that went into effect in May 2020 in England changed the country's organ donation regulations, reflecting public support for organ donation. Now, adults are typically presumed to have agreed to donate their own organs upon death unless they declare they're refusing to donate organs (or their family opts them out).

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.

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.

UNOS oversees the entire US organ donation system

The United Network for Organ Sharing is a private, nonprofit organization that manages much of the US organ donation and transplantation system under a federal contract. Medical urgency, blood type, organ size, and geography of the donor and recipient are all factors determining how someone who needs an organ is matched with someone who donated an organ.

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 body to science

It's a separate process to donate your body for medical research; you usually must contact a whole-body donation program directly. Bodies can be donated for medical research, for forensic analysis research, or for medical students to work with as they learn anatomy and surgery, among other purposes. Learn more about numerous accredited organizations that provide human bodies, organs, and tissues to medical researchers and students.

'Donation after circulatory death' is on the rise

This occurs when a patient in a coma is on life support and family members agree to donate the organs. Watch this video about a 2025 New York Times investigation that identified 12 instances across nine states of bungled or premature attempts to retrieve organs from people whose families had authorized withdrawal of life support.

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.

Brain death is a top source of organ donation

Brain death is a significant source of organ donations because 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.

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

In 2024, the US had more organ transplants than ever before—besting the 2023 record

More than 48,000 organ transplants were performed in 2024, and about 46,630 were performed in 2023. These record highs are illustrated here as part of data from 1988 to partway through 2025. Kidneys, livers, and the heart remain the most common transplanted organs. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

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.

Observant Catholics can donate organs because the official Catholic stance is brain death is death—enabling organ donation

The Vatican states that brain death, when properly diagnosed, means that a person is dead even though machines can keep them alive. That official stance from Catholic leadership and echoed by most Catholic doctors and ethicists enables the families of observant Catholics to proceed with organ donation.

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.

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.

Brain death is very rare—only 2% of hospital patients have brain death in the US

A peer-reviewed analysis examining US hospital billing code data from 2012 to 2016 concluded that the incidence of brain death is about 2% in the country. There was no available information indicating what proportion of those patients underwent organ donation.

Transplanted organs can be rejected by the body immediately, months after transplant, or slowly over years

Organ rejection remains a huge challenge for organ transplant recipients. Rejection occurs when a recipient's immune system identifies a transplanted organ as foreign and attacks it. Recipient-donor screening processes try to match antigens to help reduce this risk.

Global xenotransplantation market may already be valued at more than $13B

With more than 100,000 people on the waiting list for organs at any given time in the United States, there's a known demand for organ transplants. Some estimates put the value of the global xenotransplantation market above $13B in recent years—and project the market to continue growing.

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.

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.

How much your blood really costs

In the US, donating plasma twice a week can earn you $400 a month. But this system only works by targeting people who need the money most. Plasma clinics are placed in low-income zip codes, and frequent donation may increase health risks.

White patients waited 374 days for a kidney—Black patients waited 727 days

A 2022 congressionally mandated report highlighted racial inequities in the US organ transplant system, including disparities that made it more likely white people will be placed on organ wait lists than Black people. It spotlighted inequities such as racial differences in median kidney wait times identified in earlier research. The report, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, recommended fixes including that the Department of Health and Human Services develop national performance goals for the system and achieve equity in the system in the next five years.

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.)

NSF-funded research into matching algorithms improved the success of organ transplants

Investigations in game theory, including concepts focused on creating mutually beneficial partnerships—matching theory—led to the design of computer systems that efficiently matched kidney recipients and live donors, resulting in higher-quality matches. By 2019, these matching algorithms were used for multi-organ exchanges.

Organ transplants can come with a price tag of more than $2M without insurance

According to 2025 report data that was graphically represented by Statista, average costs for organ transplants can be as steep as $2.3M for a double lung transplant and $1.9M for a heart. These figures are based on what was actually charged to insurance companies—not what individual patients paid. Following the actual transplant there are also additional costs associated with the procedure, including lifelong immunosuppressant drugs.

Read why one man agreed to get a pig kidney in 2025 to replace his own failing organ

The 68-year-old New Hampshire man told USA Today that a motivator for the experimental surgery was his belief that he was going to die anyway, and other people suffering from kidney disease could gain valuable insights. Yet the surgery bought him time—he lived 271 days with a pig organ and later received a human kidney transplant. Clinical trials began in 2026 to test the pig xenotransplants in more people.

The first successful organ transplant was performed in 1954

The successful kidney transplant procedure, at what's now-called Brigham and and Women's Hospital, ushered in a new medical era and gave hope to patients with organ failure. The recipient, 23-year-old Richard Herrick, lived eight more years after receiving the donated organ from his living twin brother, Ronald.

'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.

Selecting an embryo based on polygenic score is illegal in the UK, Israel, and swaths of Europe

Though their use for embryo selection is illegal in many locations, private clinics in the US may offer polygenic scores to inform embryo selection. The US Food and Drug Administration has not banned their use—instead the tests are regulated like supplements, meaning they are not regulated before they come to market but consumers can file complaints and then the agency may take action.

Transplant organs don't always last a lifetime—that's where retransplants come in

How long a transplanted organ lasts depends on a variety of factors including the type of organ and the health of the recipient. Sometimes organs can last many decades, but other times people may need retransplants, which means another transplant following a previous one. Retransplants are most common with kidneys.

How did segregation in the US affect blood donations?

When the US established its first nationwide network of blood banks in 1941 with the hopes of restoring the dwindling reserves of military members, it was quick to emphasize blood donated by Black Americans wouldn't coat the veins of white servicemen. Historians say this policy was meant to appease white Southerners who believed Black blood was inferior to their own.This policy was leaked to the press that same year.

Australia legalized 3-parent IVF in 2022

It was the second country, after the UK, to legalize the procedure, which is still prohibited in the US. There are more than 300 rare mitochondrial diseases that can be passed from a mother to her offspring.

Xenotransplants are an experimental last resort for the terminally ill

David Bennett Sr., the world’s first genetically modified pig heart transplant recipient, explained his reasoning to his University of Maryland Medical Center care team in 2022 regarding why he accepted a pig organ: He was dying and ineligible for a human heart transplant so this was a last-ditch effort, he said. He died two months after receiving the heart.

How credit scoring works outside the US

If you move outside the US, you won’t get to take your credit score with you. Credit scoring systems work differently in other countries. In the UK, for instance, being registered to vote improves your credit score.

About 70% of the Human Genome Project's reference genome came from one donor

Volunteers who donated blood to the Human Genome Project consented to using no more than 10% of their DNA, raising questions about the project's legality. Listen to how pressure from a private competitor may have driven officials to ignore ethical standards.

In the US, 'organic food' is defined by the USDA

Food products can only be classified as “organic” if they meet the standards defined by the US Department of Agriculture. For crops, that means avoiding prohibited substances and genetic engineering, among other requirements. For livestock, that includes a minimum number of grazing days.

Which organs can you live without?

While there are some organs (such as the heart) that people simply can’t live without, there are other organs that can be removed without a huge impact. Patients who have their appendix removed, for example, experience no changes to their daily...

It's been 75 years since doctors took Henrietta Lacks' cells without her consent or knowledge in 1951 and used them for research, creating an 'immortal' cell line that's still used today—but modern policies and legislation around patient consent remain complex.