The Truth about Donation and Transplantation
From the grocery store tabloids to talk radio to popular TV programs and movies, Americans are subjected to a constant bombardment of misconception and fiction about tissue and organ donation and transplantation. These stories and shows can be very entertaining, but they also create confusion in the public mind and frustration for medical professionals.

People must have the facts in order to make informed decisions about donation. Approximately 92,000 Americans wait for organ transplants and thousands more need life-enhancing tissue donation. It is also fact that America could meet the need for donated organs and tissues if more people supported donation. By separating fact from fiction, Americans will be better prepared to make the donation decisions for themselves and their loved ones.

It is the people who have the most money or the most publicity that receive the organs.The system is not fair.

Factors such as race, gender, age, income or celebrity status are never considered when determining who receives an organ. The organ allocation and distribution system is based on many factors including blood type, length of time on the waiting list, geographical location, severity of illness and other medical criteria.

Every patient who qualifies to receive an organ is listed on the national registry maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a nonprofit service headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. UNOS, which was established by an act of Congress in 1984, serves transplant programs, physicians and organ procurement organizations throughout the country. This national registry is used to match available organs with potential recipients based on strict objective criteria.

People can buy and sell organs.

It is a federal crime under the National Organ Transplant Act (Public Law 98-507) to sell organs. Organ donation in this country is managed by non-profit organ procurement organizations (OPOs) that are certified and monitored by the federal Health Care Financing Administration. Tissue banks, which process, preserve and distribute tissue to transplant programs, must be registered with the U. S. Food and Drug Administration.

Doctors may not try to save a person's life so they can transplant their organs to other patients.

The doctors who treat a patient at the time of death are in no way involved with transplant programs or potential recipients. Donor organizations serve as the intermediaries between attending physicians and hospitals where a donation occurs and the transplant programs and transplant teams. Hospitals will notify donor organizations when a potential donor is identified, and donation is considered only after every effort has been made to save the patient's life.

Doctors might take organs before the patient is really dead.

Most fears about donation come from misunderstanding of brain death. Organs can be donated only after brain death is diagnosed and declared in a hospital. After brain death occurs, the body can be maintained for a short time by mechanical support systems before the organs begin to deteriorate. This is not "life support." When on mechanical support, the body has color and is warm to the touch, but it is not alive. If brain death is not clearly and completely explained, family members may be confused. But the fact is that brain death is not a coma. Brain death is irreversible. Brain death is death.

Tissue and cornea donation is possible after brain death or cardio-respiratory (heart-lung) death. This means that there are more opportunities for people to become tissue and cornea donors because mechanical support is not required to maintain tissues for transplant.

No donation can happen until a declaration of death has been made and the family of the donor has given consent.

It costs money to donate.

Donation is a gift. It costs the donor family nothing. All the costs associated with the recovery of donated organs, tissues and corneas are charged to the donor program.

The donor's family is only responsible for the costs of medical treatment prior to death and for funeral expenses, just as they would be if there were no donation.

Donating organs, tissues and corneas disfigures the body. A donor can not have an open casket funeral.

Donation does not disfigure the body or change the way it looks in a casket. Most donations are performed in operating room, and the donor is treated with the same care as a surgery patient.

After donation, the body is carefully reconstructed to normal appearance. The donation coordinators provide funeral directors with detailed information so the body can be prepared for burial with no complications. Because the body is not disfigured, donation will not interfere with funeral plans for open casket services.

Donation will delay the funeral.

In general, organ, tissue and corneal donation takes place within 24 hours after a declaration of death. Cooperative efforts are discussed by the funeral directors and donation coordinators to ensure that funeral plans are not delayed.

Donation is against religious beliefs.

Most major religions support donation as an act of human kindness in keeping with religious teachings. Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism all regard donation as a matter of individual conscience.

People are often unaware of the attitudes of their faith toward donation. They may be misled by old superstitions or misreading of religious texts. The best advice is to discuss any questions about donation with a clergy member or spiritual adviser.

Transplants do not really work. They are just experimental.

Transplantation is now regarded as standard medical practice for a constantly increasing number of conditions. Americans receive more than 25,000 solid organ transplants and 1,000,000 tissue transplants annually. Corneal transplants are by far the most frequently performed human transplant procedure.

Tissue and corneal transplants offer effective treatment for an extraordinary range of conditions. Donated tissues and corneas are used to restore sight, mobility and heart action; to speed healing; to repair damaged skin, bone and muscle; and to prevent amputation of limbs damaged by cancer, infections and injuries.

Cataracts, poor vision and age would limit the likelihood that a person could be an eye donor.

Anyone can be an eye donor. Cataracts, poor eyesight, or age would not prohibit a person from being an eye donor. It is important for individuals wanting to be donors to inform family members of their wishes.

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