Organ donation

The HTA regulates the donation by living people of solid organs, bone marrow and stem cells.

Living donation

The HT Act requires the HTA to approve all transplants from living donors, whether or not the donor is related to the recipient. We are working with UK Transplant to ensure the appropriate systems are in place to support these transplants.

Previously living donations were to genetic relatives and to people with close personal relationships (people who were not genetically related but had an emotional tie with one another). The HT Act allows more flexibility in who can donate to whom, so that more people can benefit from a living-donor transplant.

The new options for living-donor transplants are paired / pooled donation and altruistic donation.

There are special considerations to be taken into account for paired or pooled and altruistic donation, as these are very different from the usual living-donor transplants, where the donor and recipient know each other. It is important that the donor and recipient stay anonymous, and that confidentiality is respected.

For further information about living-donor transplants please see our Code of Practice 2 donation of organs, tissue and cells for transplantation and our leaflet on living-donor transplants.

Information for Independent Assessors

Deceased donation

The procedures and rules relating to donations from deceased people remain broadly the same as before: the wishes of the deceased must be established before organs and tissue can be removed. A person can indicate their agreement to donation by joining the NHS Organ Donor Register and carrying a donor card. If no record of consent exists, the HT Act permits consent to be obtained from the person nominated by the deceased person to act on his or her behalf; or if one does not exist, from a person in a “qualifying relationship” – such as a partner or other relative or friend.

For more information on deceased donation please see our Code of Practice 2 Donation of Organs, tissue and cells for transplantation.

Read our interim guidance on the withdrawal of consent and deceased donors