Organ and Tissue Donation Charts
 
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Learn the Facts about Organ and Tissue Donation
These facts may help you better understand organ, eye, and tissue donation:
Fact: Anyone, regardless of age or medical history, can sign up to be a donor.
The transplant team will determine at an individual's time of death whether donation is possible.
Fact: Most major religions in the United States support organ donation and
consider donation as the final act of love and generosity toward others.
Fact: If you're ill or injured and admitted to a hospital, the number one priority is to save your life.
Fact: When matching donor organs to recipients, the computerized matching system
considers issues such as the severity of illness, blood type, time spent waiting,
other important medical information, and geographic location.
The recipient's financial or celebrity status or race does not figure in.
Fact: An open casket funeral is usually possible for organ, eye, and tissue donors.
Through the entire donation process, the body is treated with care, respect, and dignity.
Fact: There is no cost to donors or their families for organ or tissue donation.
Fact: Every state provides access to a donor registry where its residents can indicate their donation decision.
Fact: Federal law prohibits buying and selling organs in the U.S. Violators are punishable by prison sentences and fines.
Fact: People can recover from comas, but not brain death. Coma and brain death are not the same.
Brain death is final.
To learn more about organ/tissue donation and to register online, go to: www.donatelifenewengland.org
