What is Organ Donation?

Organ donation is the process of removal and transplantation of viable organs from donor to recipient. Recipients have to be matched with the donor organ in order to reduce the recipient's rejection of the new organ.

The demand for viable organs outweighs the supply. Statistics indicate that approximately every 18 minutes, someone is added to the national waiting list for organ transplant.

In 1954, Dr. Joseph E. Murray performed the first successful kidney transplant in Boston. Since then, medical science has concentrated on organ donation as a way of replacing a recipient's dysfunctional organ with that of a healthy donor organ.

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