Organ Donation

Organ donation saves lives — but India has a severe shortage of donated organs. A single deceased donor can save up to 8 lives and improve the lives of many more. Awareness, family discussion, and pledging are simple actions that make a real difference.

Two types of donation

• Deceased (cadaveric) donation — after brain death or circulatory death, organs including kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas, small bowel, and tissues (corneas, heart valves, skin, bone) can be donated.
• Living donation — one kidney or a piece of liver from a close relative. Legally regulated to prevent trade.

Brain death — the key concept

• Brain death = irreversible loss of all brain function. It is clinically and legally death — different from coma or vegetative state.
• In India, brain death is diagnosed under strict criteria by a team of four doctors (including a neurologist/neurosurgeon not part of the transplant team), tested twice at intervals.
• The family's consent for organ donation after brain death saves lives that would otherwise be lost.

How to register as a donor in India

• Pledge online at the NOTTO website (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization) — free and legally recognised.
• Tell your family. In India, the family's decision at the time of death is what matters practically — even if you pledged, they are the ones who will sign.
• Some states issue donor cards/stickers.
• Driving licences in several states now include an organ-donor option — use it.
• Corneal donation is particularly easy and has a very short time window (6 hours after death); eye banks collect at home.

Common myths (all wrong)

• "If I pledge, doctors won't save me." — Doctors are ethically and legally obligated to treat you fully; organ donation only comes into consideration after death.
• "My religion forbids donation." — All major religions practised in India (Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism) support or permit donation as an act of saving life.
• "I'm too old / too sick." — Age and many medical conditions do not automatically exclude donation; the transplant team decides organ by organ.
• "Donation disfigures the body." — Donation is done like any surgery, and the body is returned to the family for normal funeral rites.

Living donation — regulated

• Close relatives only, with legal authorisation. Commercial donation is illegal under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act.
• Living kidney donation and partial-liver donation are safe for carefully selected, thoroughly evaluated donors.
• Follow-up care for the donor is part of the programme.