ORGAN DONATION

organ donation

Who decide to donate their own organ, show the willingness to help another person. Organ donation is a free, anonymous and supportive act that can help a seriously ill person survive and/or improve their life. Organ and tissue donation may only be made with the consent of the donor, or failing that, of his family members.

DONATIONS FROM LIVING AND DECEASED PERSONS

Dead donor

Live donor

Organ and tissue donation can only be made following a diagnosis of death and if the deceased has expressed the wish to become a donor while alive. ORGANS: heart, kidneys, liver, lungs,(life-saving) pancreas and intestines TISSUES: skin, bones, tendons, cartilage, corneas, heart valves and blood vessels.

Can bacame donors only those who have previously undergone thorough medical and psychological exams. ORGANS: kidney and part of the liver. TISSUES: bone marrow, blood, skin, placenta, umbilical cord are taken from a healthy person.

VS

There is a law that prohibits the extraction of gonads (genitals), brain and genetic manipulation of embryos.

DECLARATION OF INTENT

All people aged 18 are offered the possibility and not the obligation to declare their wish to donate organs and tissues after death, through different modalities, but all people can change the declaration of will at any time. If a people does not express his or her wishes while he or she is alive, the law provides for the possibility for family members to oppose the removal of organs and tissues.

CONDITIONS FOR DONATION

People who die at home cannot donate their organs, because the extraction requires medical examinations, that can only be performed at hospital. When a person dies in the intensive care unit from serious brain damage, it is sometimes possible to continue with artificial respiration, even after death: this way there are the right conditions for organ donation. Through artificial respiration the organs continue to receive oxygen until they are taken for transplantation. If a patient dies from cardiac arrest, there are no such optimal conditions for donation, but it ispossible, only in some conditions , provided that the withdrawal takes place quickly because, in the absence of heart beat, the organs are no longer supplied and therefore quickly damaged.

DONATE UNTIL LATE IN LIFE

Organs, tissues and cells can be donated until old age. The donation is based on health, not age. People with a serious infectious disease or cancer may not be able to donate. However, in these cases too, depending on the disease and under certain conditions, it is possible to donate organs, tissues or cells.

PROTECTION OF THE DONOR

The donor is protected by a medical, ethical and legal order. The rules guarantee the right to treatment for patients suffering from diseases for which transplantation is the only possible therapy. The donation of organs, tissues and cells is, in fact, an act of great civic value thanks to which every year thousands of people, affected by serious and irreversible diseases, can be treated with transplantation.

'Thanks for your attention