Organ donation myth buster

Healthcare professionals have a duty of care to save your life first.

If, despite their best efforts, death is inevitable, organ and tissue donation will be considered as end of life care discussions start with your family, friends and next of kin.

Only when end of life care planning is started is the NHS Organ Donor Register accessed by healthcare professionals and the possibility of organ donation discussed with the patient’s family.

You can choose to donate a kidney or part of your liver as a living organ donor, but the majority of organs and/or tissues are only removed for transplantation after a person has died. There are strict criteria in place in the United Kingdom to help those caring for the dying, by providing safe, timely and consistent criteria for the diagnosis of death. Organs are never removed until the patient’s death has been confirmed in line with these criteria.

In the United Kingdom we determine death in two ways – either confirmation of brain stem death or circulatory death. 

You can find out more about the types of organ donation here.

The donor is treated with the greatest care and respect during the removal of organs and/or tissue for donation. The retrieval of organs takes place in a normal operating theatre under sterile conditions by specialist doctors. Afterwards the surgical incision is carefully closed and covered by a dressing in the normal way.

Tissue can be removed in an operating theatre, mortuary or funeral home. The operation is carried out by specialist healthcare professionals who always ensure that the donor is treated with the utmost respect and dignity. Only those organs and tissue specified by the donor or their family will be removed.

Organ and tissue donation doesn't prevent a donor from having an open-casket funeral. The body is clothed for burial, so there are no visible signs of organ or tissue donation. The operation site is covered with a white surgical dressing like any other abdominal surgery dressing. 

There is no maximum age for joining the register. The decision about whether some or all organs or tissue are suitable for transplant is always made by a medical specialist at the time of donation, taking into account your medical and social history.

We encourage everyone who supports organ donation, regardless of their age, to sign up to the NHS Organ Donation Register and to share their decision with their family.

Organs from children are needed too.

None of us want to contemplate the death of a loved one, least of all a child. Sadly some children do die and the decision to donate has provided some comfort to whole families, knowing their child went on to help others.

Organs of all sizes are needed to save the lives of others. Sometimes it is necessary to consider an organ’s size in the matching process, for example small children are more likely to require heart and lungs from child donors.

Every year around 1,400 people generously donate their organs across the UK when they die and more than 1,000 people donate a kidney or part of their liver while they are alive. Yet still on average three people die every day in need of an organ transplant because there are not enough organ donors.

Right now, around 6,000 people in the UK are on the transplant waiting list, but there are many more who would benefit from a transplant. While most people support organ donation in principle, only around a third of people have registered a decision to donate, and less than half have ever talked to somebody about organ donation.

A family is much more likely to agree to donation going ahead if their relative had recorded their decision to donate on the NHS Organ Donor Register or had previously discussed their decision with them.

Having an illness or medical condition doesn’t necessarily prevent a person from becoming an organ or tissue donor. The decision about whether some or all organs or tissue are suitable for transplant is made by a medical specialist at the time of donation, taking into account your medical, travel and social history. Find out more about your eligibility as an organ donor.

Someone with current active cancer cannot become an organ donor. However, there are certain types of cancers that after three years of treatment, people can donate organs. It still may be possible to donate eyes and some tissue in these circumstances.

The decision about whether some or all organs or tissue are suitable for transplant is always made by a medical specialist at the time of donation, taking into account your medical and social history. 

By the time your will is read it’s likely to be far too late for you to become a donor. Should you die in circumstances that mean organ donation may be a possibility, medical specialists will discuss organ donation with your next of kin as part of the end of life care discussion. The medical team will consult the NHS Organ Donor Register to establish your donation decision before discussing it with your family. By telling your family you want to be an organ donor in the event of your death you can relieve them of the burden of having to make the decision at such a difficult time. 

So, tell them your decision, let them know you want to be an organ donor. 

No, the transplant laws in the UK absolutely prohibit the sale of human organs or tissue. 

We know that in most cases families will agree to donation if they know that was their loved one's decision. If the family, or those closest to the person who has died, object to the donation even when their loved one has given their explicit permission (either by joining the NHS Organ Donor Register or by carrying an organ donor card) or deemed consent applies, healthcare professionals will discuss the matter sensitively with the family. They will be encouraged to accept their loved one's decision and it will be made clear that they do not have the legal right to veto or overrule that decision. There may, nevertheless, be cases where it would be inappropriate for donation to go ahead if donation would cause distress to the family.