Social media users have shared a post suggesting that organ donors may only donate their organs for donation while they are still alive. While some organs, such as a single kidney, can be donated while the donor is alive, most organ donations take place after the donor has died. The medical profession considers people whose brains have irreversibly ceased to function as dead.
‘Are you an organ donor? Did you know that organs can only be obtained from a living body? ‘says the report (here). Comments include: “No. I prefer not to give a hospital a reason to kill me,” and “DEFINITELY NOT AN ORGAN DONOR!”
Information on the U.S. Government Information on Organ Donation and Transplant website explains that: “Most organ and tissue donations occur after the donor dies [but] some organs (including a kidney or part of a liver or lung) and tissues may be donated while the donor is alive. ‘(here) In 2020, just under 6,000 organ donors lived and just over 12,000 died (here).
(See also: ‘General donation questions here and’ Living organ donation ‘here).
An organ can only be donated if it is still functioning, so the organ cannot be dead tissue. However, someone whose brain irreversibly ceases to function is recognized as dead, even if it can cause other organs to function mechanically. This is usually called ‘brain death’.
On its website that explains organ donation, the US government says “Brain death is death and it is irreversible. Someone who is brain dead cannot recover. “(Here. A similar website maintained by the British National Health Service says:” Brain death is legal death. If someone’s brain is dead, the damage is irreversible, and according to British law the person is dead. “Here) .
This definition of brain death is widely accepted in law. However, there are people who argue that, if some other important organ systems can still function, someone should not be considered dead, not even if the brain functions irrevocably.
Some comments on the Facebook post express concern about organs being hypothetically donated if they are later “brought back to life” after being declared dead. Yale’s Neurocritical Care Society explains here that for a brain death diagnosis ‘the cause of the brain injury must be known with its effect on the brain which is permanent’. They add that, “If the clinician doubts whether there can be even minimal recovery, brain death is not declared.” Doctors will perform a series of tests to ensure that brain death has occurred before considering withdrawing organs for donation (see ‘Brain Death Testing’ here).
Organs can only be taken from certain deceased donors: only 3 out of 1000 of those who register as organ donors can actually donate their organs when they die because they have to die in very specific circumstances where the organ is still preserved (see ‘Medical care of Potential donors here). The website explains that a transplant team determines based on clinical evaluation, medical history and other factors which organs and tissues can be used at death. (see ‘Who can be a donor’ here).
VERDICT
Missing context. It is not true that organs can only be donated from a living body, although only functioning organs can be donated. Most donated organs come from people whose brains have irrevocably ceased to function and who are considered dead.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.