According to statistics through Organ Donor.Gov, roughly 60% of Americans have signed up as organ donors, and those within the US who have chosen cremation are approximately the same. If you are an organ donor with an end-of-life plan to be cremated, or a loved one is, you may have several questions about how or if cremation affects organ donation and vice versa.
You may be unsure of what organ donation entails and if it changes anything about the cremation process. Today, we hope to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about organ donation and cremation you may have.
What Is Organ Donation or Tissue Donation?
Organ and tissue donation is a choice that one makes to donate any organs or tissue after passing to give life to another in need. Surgeons will remove a healthy organ or tissue from a donor who has passed and no longer needs it and transfer it to someone else who does. Organs they can transplant include the liver, kidney, heart, lungs, and more.
Organ recipients are often people who are critically ill and in the end stages of organ failure, where only an organ donation could save their lives. Unfortunately, organ donation remains scarce, and many on a waiting list do not get the organs they need in time.
It isn't just the deceased who can donate, either. Healthy people may donate a specific organ or tissues they can spare while protecting and remaining healthy. For a small example, people who are healthy with two healthy kidneys can donate a kidney and continue to function normally with just one. A small piece of donated liver could grow to a full-size, functional liver in a donor recipient.
How Does Organ Donation Affect Cremation?
In most cases, cremation for an organ donor won't be affected because the chances of actually donating are meager. When a person becomes a registered donor, they may assume that one or more of their organs will be donated to someone who desperately needs them. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that only 3 in roughly 1,000 people are suitable for organ donation at the time of their passing.
To be considered ideal for donation, an organ must be in perfect health, without the threat of disease, to meet transplantation qualification. How an organ donor passes also affects whether or not their organs can be donated. It's common for those who have passed from particular illnesses, suffering from severe head trauma, or those who have suffered a massive stroke to be an organ donor. In most cases, the donor is often on life support but no longer has any brain activity.
If Organs are Viable, What Happens Next?
If an organ donor passes and the organs are viable, or the donor is still alive and donating a single kidney, then time is the most significant factor. Organ donation must be made as quickly as possible; a doctor will contact OPO or the Organ Donation Procurement Organization first to determine if the donor matches the recipient. If there's a chance, the OPO sends a local representative to the hospital to help make a match and begin the process.
Because of how delicate organs are, they must be removed as quickly as possible to become a viable transplant. To ensure that they remain healthy, doctors will often ask families to keep donors on life support until a transplant surgical team is ready to remove the organs in an operating room in the hospital.
The surgical process generally takes 4-6 hours, but time is still absolutely critical once that's complete. Depending on the organ, the organ must be transplanted within the recipient within 4-36 hours. The time between removal and transplantation is often referred to as Cold Ischemia Time or Cold Time. Cold time is when an organ is without blood circulation and kept cold from removal to the donor.
This timing is critical in ensuring the organ being transplanted functions properly, as the longer an organ goes without blood supply, the more chances of its functionality deteriorating.
Affecting Cremation
In most cases, organ donation will not affect cremation in any way. The cremation process might need to be delayed by only one or two days. Family may begin to make arrangements as soon as a loved one is pronounced dead or brain death is verified.
As there are many religious customs and beliefs connected to death, you may be concerned that donating organs might conflict with religious tradition. Most of the major religions today support donation for transplantation and are generally seen as donating organs for the benefit of others as a demonstration of faith and love for humankind.
We hope that we have been able to answer your questions about cremation and organ donation, as well as bring you solace and peace of mind.