Register As An Organ Donor
Five minutes online, once, and it may be the largest thing you ever do for a stranger.
- Cost
- Free
- Time
- Under 15 min
- People
- Solo / Duo, Small Group (3-6), Large Group (7+)
- Where
- Home, Anywhere
- Bring
- Nothing in particular
Why this matters
People die on transplant waiting lists every week while suitable organs go unused. A single donor can save or transform multiple lives. Most countries have far more people who say they support donation than have actually registered - the gap is almost entirely admin, not opposition. Registering also spares your family from guessing at your wishes in the worst possible moment.
How to do it
This takes about five minutes and you can do it from your phone right now, in a queue, on a bus.
Look up your country's organ donation register and sign up. In the UK that's the NHS Organ Donor Register; most countries have a direct equivalent.
The part people skip, and shouldn't: tell your family. In many systems your family will still be consulted, and families who don't know what you wanted very often say no - not out of opposition, but because they're being asked an impossible question in the worst hours of their life. Two minutes of conversation removes that entirely.
Some things worth knowing: - Opt-out systems still benefit from you registering and telling people. "Deemed consent" isn't the same as your family knowing. - Most medical conditions don't rule you out. Very few things do. Don't self-select out on a guess. - Age isn't a barrier either - organs and tissue have been successfully donated from donors well into their eighties.
Do it as a group and it takes the strangeness out of it. Five minutes, everyone gets it done, and it stops being a thing you keep meaning to do.