Organ donation

Organ donation is the provision of organs or tissues for transplantation, either by a living donor or after death. It enables transplantation when a recipient’s organ has failed or is severely damaged.

Organ transplantation: A surgical procedure that replaces a failing organ with an organ from a donor. Donation supplies the organs that transplantation places into recipients.
Informed consent: Voluntary agreement to a medical intervention after receiving relevant information about its risks and alternatives. Living donors must understand and freely accept the risks of donation.
Kidney transplantation: A surgical treatment for kidney failure that places a donor kidney in a recipient. Kidneys are the most frequently transplanted solid organs and can come from living donors.
Organ shortage: The gap between the number of patients needing transplants and the supply of suitable donated organs. Scarcity makes donation rates and allocation rules matters of life and death.
Organ allocation: The process of assigning donated organs to patients awaiting transplantation. Allocation determines which eligible recipient receives each donated organ.
Presumed consent: A legal system in which people are treated as donors unless they have recorded an objection. It contrasts with systems requiring explicit registration before deceased donation.
Liver transplantation: A procedure that replaces a diseased or failing liver with a donor liver or part of one. A living donor can provide a portion of a liver that can grow in both people.
Transplant ethics: The ethical study of organ transplantation, including consent, allocation, risk, and access. Donation concentrates ethical questions about autonomy, fairness, and bodily integrity.
Histocompatibility: The degree to which donor and recipient tissue markers are compatible. Tissue compatibility helps predict rejection and guides matching for some transplants.
Explicit consent: A legal system in which donation requires an affirmative choice by the potential donor or an authorized surrogate. It sets the alternative legal basis for deceased donation.

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