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Organ DonationOrgan donation involves voluntarily giving an organ, or part of an organ, to someone else so they may live. Most donations come from the deceased, but living individuals can also gift an organ or part of an organ—usually a kidney or part of the liver. A single deceased organ donor can save up to eight lives, with donations most commonly leading to kidney, liver, heart, and lung transplants. Since the first successful US organ transplantation in 1954, transplant procedures and survival rates have become a lifesaving option for thousands of people each year. In 2024, there were around 24,000 organ donations and more than 48,000 organ transplants in the US. Demand for organs still consistently outpaces donor supply, with over 100,000 people awaiting organs on the national transplant list at any given time. Researchers, policymakers, and clinicians are seeking ways to improve the system, extend organ viability, and reduce the need for human organs. Current bottlenecks in the system include logistical and technical barriers, including the fact that donors must generally be in the hospital when they die to donate their organs and that there's only a short viability window for how long organs can survive outside the body. Other obstacles include the fact that only about 60% of American adults register to donate their organs, and not all donated organs are suitable for use.Explore Organ Donation

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Brain death is a top source of organ donationBrain 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. Donate Life California Observant Catholics can donate organs because the official Catholic stance is brain death is death—enabling organ donationThe 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. EWTN News UNOS oversees the entire US organ donation systemThe 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. United Network for Organ Sharing Brain death is a top source of organ donationBrain 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. National Library of Medicine Artificial intelligence may improve organ donation systems—and even organ healthMayo 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. The Atlanta Journal Constitution Organ donation isn't usually logistically possible if you die at homeSince 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. National Institute on Aging Several years after the English law changed, organ donation rates haven't improvedA 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. The Conversation England changed to an organ donation opt-out system in May 2020A 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). National Library of Medicine A virtual tour of Jane Austen's EnglandThis immersive slide show, assembled by the Morgan Library and Museum, takes you through scenes that inspired "Emma," "Northanger Abbey," and "Persuasion," as well as the estates where the 1995 BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" was shot, along with a few other important locations from Austen's world. Google Find out how popular dating apps' algorithms workThe Tinder algorithm, for instance, historically used to be based on something called the Elo rating system, which was originally created to rank chess players. Hinge uses elements inspired by the Gale-Shapley algorithm, which was created to find optimal pairs in "trades" that money can't buy, like organ donations. Mashable An electric pipe organ in Germany is playing a song for 639 yearsCreated by composer John Cage, the Halberstadt organ first began playing the piece in September 2001, and has since made only nine chord changes. The device within a medieval church utilizes compressed air to play continuous tones. The next chord change is scheduled for August 2026. Popular Science In 1968, a Harvard Medical School committee issued the first neurological definition of deathThe definition set a legal and medical precedent for how we define death, important for issues including organ donation. This 2020 video podcast discusses the history of brain death controversies and the variability in how death has been determined, including discussions in the late 1960s about when patients are considered dead in the context of organ donations. GeriPal Brain death is very rare—only 2% of hospital patients have brain death in the USA 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. ScienceDirect More than 40 states have passed versions of the Uniform Declaration of Death ActThe 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. The Uniform Law Commission Research advances suggest death takes much longer than we realizedRecent 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.) MIT Technology Review 'Donation after circulatory death' is on the riseThis 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. The New York Times White patients waited 374 days for a kidney—Black patients waited 727 daysA 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. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine In 2023, at least 6 people were charged with stealing body partsA 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. US Department of Justice You can sign up to donate your body to scienceIt'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. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine You can sign up to donate your organs at this websiteA 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. Health Resources & Services Administration A clinical trial is underway in 2026 to help kidney transplant recipients avoid a lifetime of immunosuppressing drugsThis later-stage clinical trial, in Chicago and Taiwan, evaluates the efficacy and safety of a new cellular therapy that may be swapped in for immunosuppressing drugs among kidney transplant recipients. The study randomizes people to either receive standard immunosuppressants or this cellular therapy and fewer immunosuppressants. It only includes kidney transplant recipients receiving organs from live donors so transplant surgery timing won't hinge on the unpredictable schedule of performing surgery and follow-up care when a donor dies. National Library of Medicine Immunosuppressants enable organ transplants, but come with severe side effectsThis drug cocktail helps to lower your body's natural response to attack a transplanted organ. Such medications usually need to be taken for a lifetime after receiving an organ and can come with serious side effects including high blood pressure, diabetes, increased risk of some cancers, and high cholesterol, among others. National Kidney Foundation Transplanted organs can be rejected by the body immediately, months after transplant, or slowly over yearsOrgan 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. National Library of Medicine Living donations most commonly involve a kidney or part of a liverIn 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. United Network for Organ Sharing In the US, you must actively sign up to donate your organsThe US has an opt-in donation system for organ donation—meaning people must provide consent to proceed with any donation. Locations including Spain, the United Kingdom, and Argentina have an opt-out donation system, which means individuals are presumed to be donors unless they actively refuse consent. The Alliance 3 US maps illustrate transplants, donors, and organ waitlist additions—by stateNational 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. United Network for Organ Sharing Global xenotransplantation market may already be valued at more than $13BWith 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. National Institutes of Health Jean-Jacques Lequeu was an amateur architect who dabbled with the surrealAlthough he never found a career in architecture, Lequeu sketched hundreds of images in his free time. His innovative style wasn't discovered until after his death, but the dreamlike drawings have since been appreciated for their visionary quality. The Morgan Library & Museum The origins of modern family offices date back to the 1500sWealth management for families with massive fortunes has evolved over the centuries, with the Rockefellers establishing the first single-family office in 1882. National Law Review See where and how many microplastics are in the average human bodyThis diagram maps the extent to which microplastics have been found across human organ systems, tissues, and fluids. Beyond the locations shown, microplastics have also been found in the stomach, brain, and sex organs. ResearchGate JP Morgan Jr. once angered the nation with his zero-dollar tax billIn the aftermath of the Great Depression, Congress learned that Morgan and his banking partners had avoided paying any federal income tax in 1931 and 1932. By claiming their losses in the stock market, they seemingly erased what they owed. Tax Notes

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