Living Donation
What is Living Donation?
Living donation of an organ is the best possible scenario: both the organ donor and recipient remain alive after the procedure! In Harvesting Organs and Cherishing Life, we told the story of a mother who donated a kidney to her daughter, but living donation is possible between unrelated people.
Organs are complex collections of tissues that work together as a unit to perform a particular function. Examples would include heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs.
Which Organs Can You Donate While Living?
Thankfully, any organ except the heart can come from a living donor, as well as tissues such as blood, bone marrow, or skin! Unfortunately, while you obviously can't donate your heart and remain alive, a totally implantable artificial heart is currently in clinical trials. Living donation is a very ethical transplant option as long as no one is coerced. That would fall under forced organ harvesting or organ trafficking, and is illegal in all countries except Iran, which does allow for the buying and selling of human organs.