A person who gives blood, tissue, organs or reproductive material to be used to treat another person.
Person who gives living tissue (e.g., eye. blood, semen) to be used in another person.
A person who leaves instructions for his or her body or organs to be donated for medical use after death. To do this, a person fills out a Uniform Donor Card and has it signed by two witnesses. Some states also print legal donor cards on the backs of drivers’ licenses. Because a surviving next of kin can elect to disallow even written instructions, doctors recommend that people openly discuss their wishes regarding organ donation with their families.
A person who makes his own tissues or organs available for use by someone else. For example, a donor may provide blood for transfusion or a kidney for transplantation.
People who donate parts of their bodies for use in other people. Many organs and tissues can be donated most commonly blood, but skin, corneas, kidneys, livers and hearts can all be used. Combined heart and lung transplants are being increasingly used for patients with severe lung diseases, and, if the recipients have a condition such as cystic fibrosis in which the heart is normal, it is sometimes possible for them to receive a heart and lungs from one donor and to donate their own heart to someone else. Recent work has explored the possibility of using pancreatic transplants. Apart from blood, it is unusual for tissue to be taken from living donors. Skin, small pieces of liver, and a kidney can, in theory, be obtained from living donors, but the ethics of this are hotly debated and the situations under which it may be done are tightly controlled. Because transplanted organs are seen by the receiving body as ‘foreign bodies’, careful matching before transplantation is necessary to avoid rejection, and immunosuppressive drugs may be required for some time (lifelong in some cases) after the operation to prevent this from occurring.
A person (or animal) that furnishes blood, tissue, or an organ to be used in another person.
A benefactor, known as an organ, tissue, or blood contributor, selflessly provides vital biological components to enable life-saving transplants in another individual.
An individual who supplies blood for transfusions; body tissues or organs for transplant; or eggs or semen for artificial insemination. The most commonly donated organs are kidneys, corneas, hearts, lungs, livers, and pancreases. Some organs can be donated while the person is still alive; others are only utilized following brain death.
All donors should be devoid of cancer, severe infection (like hepatitis B), and should not be carriers of HIV. Organs designated for transplantation need to be harvested within a few hours of brain death, and before or directly after the cessation of the heartbeat. In certain kidney transplants, the kidney is supplied by a living donor, typically a relative who has a good tissue match, determined by tissue-typing. Examinations are conducted to confirm the health of both kidneys before one is removed.
Appropriate related donors might also supply bone marrow for transplantation and occasionally skin for grafting.
An individual who donates living tissue to another person, especially one who provides blood.