The national system matches available organs from the donor with people on the waiting list based on blood type, body size, how sick they are, donor distance, tissue type, and time on the list.

Medical staff will always work to save your life, whether you are an organ donor or not. Only after ALL efforts to save the patient’s life have been exhausted, tests have been performed to confirm the absence of brain or brainstem activity, and brain death has been declared, is donation a possibility.

There is no cost to the donor’s family or estate for donation. The donor family pays only for medical expenses before death and costs associated with funeral arrangements.

Funeral arrangements of your choice are possible, including a viewing. Through the entire donation process, the body is treated with care and respect. Following the donation, funeral arrangements can continue as planned.

Your age does not affect your ability to donate as a living or deceased donor!

The oldest tissue donor in the world was 107 years old when they donated their corneas. The oldest organ donor was 100 years old when they donated their liver. And the youngest organ donor was 74 minutes old when they donated their kidneys and liver cells.

Your wealth or fame does NOT impact your position on the transplant waitlist.

A person's sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression does NOT prevent that person from becoming an organ donor. The HOPE (HIV Organ Policy Equity) Act has made organ donation and transplantation between HIV-positive donors and HIV positive recipients possible.

All major world religions support organ donation.

Almost 60% of the transplant waitlist comes from multicultural communities, while they only make up around 30% of registered donors. While donated organs are not matched with recipients according to race or ethnicity, compatible blood types and tissue markers – critical qualities for donor and recipient matching – are more likely to be found among members of the same ethnicity.

As a deceased donor, you can donate your heart, both lungs, liver, both kidneys, your pancreas, and small intestine.

The kidneys are the most commonly needed and most commonly donated organs.

As a living donor, you can donate 1 lung, 1 kidney, part of your liver (it grows back), part of your pancreas, and part of your small intestine.

As a deceased donor, you can donate tissues including plasma, bone and associated tissue, tendons, eyes/corneas, heart valves, skin, veins and arteries, and nerves.

As a living tissue donor, you can donate plasma, whole blood, platelets, amniotic tissue, and bone marrow/blood stem cells.