Donation 101
This federal law made it illegal to buy or sell human organs for transplantation.
What is the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA)?
This organ is normally recovered as a pair and is the most commonly transplanted solid organ.
What are the Kidneys?
I'm not in the best health. Nobody wants my organs or tissues.
What is Myth?
This transplant replaces the body's blood-filtering organ and accounts for the largest number of solid-organ transplants.
What is a kidney transplant?
More than this approximate number of people are currently waiting for an organ transplant in the United States.
What is more than 100,000?
This independent organization evaluates potential deceased donors and coordinates organ recovery within its designated service area.
What is an Organ Procurement Organization (OPO)?
This organ can regenerate, allowing selected living donors to donate a portion of it.
What is the Liver?
The organ donor's family never pays for donation.
What is Fact?
A living donor who gives without naming a specific intended recipient is commonly called this.
What is a non-directed (altruistic) living donor?
In 2025, the United States performed more than this number of organ transplants.
What is 49,000?
A single deceased organ donor may save up to this many lives through organ donation.
What is 8?
This thoracic organ pumps blood and is generally transplanted as a whole organ, but can be transplanted partially.
What is the Heart?
Rich and famous people go to the top of the list when they need a donor organ.
What is Myth?
This process allows incompatible donor-recipient kidney pairs to exchange donors with other pairs.
What is kidney paired donation (KPD)?
In 2025, approximately this many people became living organ donors in the United States.
What is 7,237?
These two broad pathways describe deceased donation based on how death is determined.
What are donation after brain death (DBD) and donation after circulatory death (DCD)?
These organs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide and may be transplanted singly or bilaterally.
What are the Lungs?
In 2025, DCD donors had at least one recovered organ which represented approximately 49% percentage of U.S. deceased donors with recovered organs.
What is Fact?
True or False: An open-casket funeral can still be possible after organ and tissue donation.
What is True?
In 2024, the United States had this many total organ donors, including deceased and living donors.
What is 24,013?
True or False: A person's age or past medical history automatically prevents them from becoming an organ donor.
What is False?
Medical suitability is evaluated individually at the time of donation.
These two organs are commonly associated with living donation in the United States.
What are the Liver and the Kidney?
Donating a kidney is a dangerous procedure…
What is Myth? Most donors only spend 1-4 nights in the hospital, and are able to return to work in 2-3 weeks. The risk of complications from a donation is low, but as with any major surgery there are risks involved.
This medical specialty focuses on immune compatibility testing such as HLA typing and crossmatching.
What is histocompatibility/immunogenetics?
In 2024, the United States performed 46,750 solid-organ transplants. Roughly how many more was that than in 2013?
What is about 17,000 more transplants? (16,982)