organ donation

The National Donor Monument, Naarden, the Netherlands Organ donation is defined as the process when a person authorizes an organ of their own to be removed and transplanted to another person, legally, either by consent while the donor is alive, through a legal authorization for deceased donation made prior to death, or for deceased donations through the authorization by the legal next of kin.

Donation may be for research or, more commonly, healthy transplantable organs and tissues may be donated to be transplanted into another person. When the donor is still living, this is called a living organ donation; about 6,500 of these occur in the U.S. each year.